{"id":3065,"date":"2025-08-30T17:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2025-08-30T17:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:42:06","slug":"degustation-degustazione-or-whatever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3065","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9gustation, Degustazione or Whatever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Often as we travel in Europe, we visit towns that are central (or at least near) to the area\u2019s winemaking.\u00a0 The one thing they all have in common is that they are heavily visited by tourists.\u00a0 These have included Taormina in Sicily, Beaune<\/a> in France and Dubrovnik<\/a> in Croatia.\u00a0 Often, as we walk around the towns, we see signs that say, \u201cD\u00e9gustation<\/em>\u201d or the equivalent in the local language.\u00a0 Degustation is an English word that means \u201ctasting\u201d, so the shops that the signs are in front of could be bakeries or delis, but they\u2019re always in front of wine shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A scene from the film, La D\u00e9gustation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are always bars that we could go to \u2013 and have gone to \u2013 where we could sample the local wines.  We well remember such a bar in \u00c9pernay, France with four glasses of Champagne lined up on our table.  But that\u2019s not what a D\u00e9gustation is.  Nor is it a bistro with a good list of wines by the glass.  It\u2019s a store, where people can go in and buy bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When talking about wine, a D\u00e9gustation is, as the word implies, a wine tasting.\u00a0 It\u2019s not at a winery and in fact it usually consists of a selection of wines from the vendor\u2019s stock.\u00a0 They are meant to show off the best, or at least typical, wines of the region where the shop is located.\u00a0 A good one really does highlight top wines.\u00a0 Others are more likely to feature bottles that the shop is trying to get rid of.\u00a0 (You can almost hear the shop owner saying, \u201cHeck, they\u2019re only tourists.\u00a0 They won\u2019t know the difference and I\u2019ll never see them again.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve run into both types.  How can we tell the difference?  In most instances, we\u2019ve never been to that town before and are unlikely to go there again.  And we don\u2019t know the wines on offer.  So all we could do is try our luck, winning sometimes and not in other cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As said, D\u00e9gustations are not bars.  Customers pay a flat fee for four or five tastes.  In this way they differ from Italian enotecas<\/em>, where we could also buy wines by the bottle, for consumption on-site or back home.  But in enotecas, we could buy wines by the glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One virtue of D\u00e9gustations is that the vendor often acts not only as a seller of his own wines but as an educator on the wines of the region.  For example, there are plenty of Degustaziones in Montalcino.  We know in advance that the shop will be serving Brunellos, because that\u2019s what they make in that Tuscan village and its environs.  Ah, but which ones?  We are familiar with a few and we enjoy a good Brunello, but we\u2019re hardly expert enough to know which are the best and which are just ordinary.  So we listen as the shopkeeper explains the climate and soil conditions around the village and how they affect the aromas and tastes of each wine.  If we show a little interest \u2013 even better, buy a bottle or two \u2013 the server is likely to open some extra wines, to tempt us further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

D\u00e9gustations are not better than visiting wineries, but if we are on a trip where we don\u2019t have wheels, they\u2019re a great opportunity to become acquainted with the wines made where we happen to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Often as we travel in Europe, we visit towns that are central (or at least near) to the area\u2019s winemaking.\u00a0 The one thing they all have in common is that they are heavily visited by tourists.\u00a0 These have included Taormina in Sicily, Beaune in France and Dubrovnik in Croatia.\u00a0 Often, as we walk around the … Continue reading D\u00e9gustation, Degustazione or Whatever<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3067,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions\/3067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}