A wine term - “CLOS”

I was sitting at my desk the other day thinking about the “rare grape series” that I’ve been writing over the last year, and it occured to me that a similar series featuring wine terminology (especially foreign language terms) might also be entertaining as well as interesting for one and all, no? And so we proceed…

The FIRST wine term in this new series is the French word “CLOS” (pronounced “Cloh”). I’m relatively confident that most of you have seen this term on labels from everywhere in the world, but the term is most closely associated with France (it’s a French word after all), an even more particularly, with Burgundy, though it is by no means exclusive to this region.

So what DOES it mean? It’s a very simple, but still very specific meaning - the term “clos” refers to nothing more or less than a walled vineyard. Intuitively, one knows that simply putting a wall around a vineyard doesn’t actually DO anything for the vines, but it definitely is a SYMBOL for something, and that something is prestige and quality. French wines that include term “clos” are “select” wines. Think about it - if you put a wall around your vineyard, you’re clearly calling attention to it, and apart from the protection that the wall provides from the “rabble”, and some grape-eating four-legged critters, the attention the grower is seeking is recognition for the unique and finer qualities of that particular site, and a wall gives such a powerful visual symbol to all who see it. Further, the ability to use this word on one’s labels conveys the same level of prestige to the buyer and drinker that it does to the local who can actually eyeball the old pile of bricks in situ…

Just as an aside, in Catalunya, the word is “closa”, and in the Veneto region of Italy, the word “brolo” is used to mean the same as “clos”.

TOM CIOCCO

WE ARE THE WINES THAT SAY “CLOS”!