How to Pronounce Wine Names

Taste testing wine once it has arrived at your table is easy, proper pronunciation when ordering can make anyone a little nervous. You may be out to dinner with clients to close a deal, celebrating a milestone with colleagues, or just enjoying conversation with friends, but in any scenario, knowing the proper pronunciation for different types of wine brands is a quick way to impress.

Wines come from all over the world and that can make pronunciation tricky, having you thinking back to your high school Spanish, French, or Italian classes. For example, “do you say Cabernet with a hard ‘t’? Is the ‘d’ in ‘d’Abruzzo’ silent or not?"

Don’t worry, you don’t need to take language classes or meet privately with a sommelier (suh-mel-yay) to learn how to pronounce wine names. We’ve got you covered with a wine pronunciation guide that you will want to bookmark for years to come.

Most Common Wine Names

There are hundreds of wine terms to learn so let’s start with the ten that you will use frequently when ordering.

Beaujolais (boh-jhoe-lay)

Red wine region of southern Burgundy

Cabernet Sauvignon (cab-er-nay saw-vee-nyon)

A red wine grape, the most widely recognized

Chardonnay (shar-doh-nay)

A green grape used to make white wine

Malbec (mahl-behk)

A red wine grape of Bordeaux

Merlot (mer-loh)

A dark blue colored wine grape variety, most common in Bordeaux

Pinot Grigio (pee-noh-GREE-joe)

A white wine grape grown in Italy

Riesling (REESE-ling)

A white wine grape which originated in Germany 

Rioja (ree-OH-hah)

A wine region in Spain where these grapes are grown

Sangiovese (san-joe-VAE-sae)

A red wine grape from Italy

Sauvignon Blanc (saw-vee-nyon blahnk)

A green wine grape originally from the Bordeaux region of France

More Wines Terms For Ordering

Now that we have the most commons covered, here’s a more comprehensive list. You may want to print this out and keep it in your purse as a cheat sheet!