Friday, Jun. 15, 2007

Sultry stories of wine vixens, ullage

By Teri Citterman

I'll take "Obscure Terms" for $100, Alex.

The word is "ullage":

A. What is a small one- or two-person sled on which one slides supine and feet-first down snowy hillsides or down steeply banked, curving, iced chutes while sipping ice wine?

B. What is a spicy Hungarian dish usually made of beef, onions, red peppers and paprika served with a big Cabernet Sauvignon?

C. What is the unfilled space in a container of liquid, especially those carrying wine, such as barrels and bottles?

D. What is a type of rubber boot that slips over shoes to keep shoes from getting muddy or wet in the tank room?

Ulalalalalalalalage rolls off the tongue so smoothly that it could be the single best word in the language of wine.

Is it a winter sport, a European stew or a state of mind?

Is it something to wear or admire? "Your ullage looks gorgeous with those earrings!"

The origin is Latin ultimately from the Latin oculus, "eye," which was used in a figurative sense by the Romans for the bung hole of a barrel. (I think bung hole should be a term investigated all on its own, but that's just me.)

The French adapted the word in the medieval period as oeil, from which a verb ouiller was created, to fill a barrel up to the bung hole. There it is again. Leave it to the French to come up with all the cool words.

Ullage: Some know it, some create it, and every bottle of wine all over the world has it.

Before you go scurrying off to look up the word in The Oxford Companion to Wine, let's continue with our game. For those who know - shhh ... keep quiet! It's much more fun when you guess a little and play around with what you never knew was there.

Ulalalalalalge. I asked a bunch of wino-types to give me their best unrelated characterizations of a few wine-related words.

The game occurred in April at the 10th annual Taste Washington in Seattle.

Eric Dunham of Dunham Cellars jumped in and opened up with the finest Pepé Le Pew rendition of a drippy French brogue: "Eet ees vhat happens after you feed a beautiful Fronch wooman lots of Champagne. She gives you lots of ulllllllllllage."

Up next, Don Corson of Camaraderie Cellars tackled "Geneva Double Curtain." Well, he didn't actually tackle her but instead explained, as only Don can, that Geneva Double Curtain is what you find in the boudoir of a lovely, lovely wine vixen. "It's really something to be experienced more than seen," he said, his eyes a-twinkling. "If you think about Geneva - she was a lovely lady, and the history and legend is just incredible."

"But does it have anything to do with ullage?" I asked sinisterly. I mean innocently.

"Not an awful lot ... because she did do a lot of heavy breathing," he continued, "but it was a different kind of thing than what usually happens in the top of a bottle," he slyly whispered.

I learned from Charlie Hoppes of Fidelitas Wines, whose explanation included a proud Santalike chuckle, that "stuck fermentation" is ... well ... when people are doing punch-downs in the tanks and they fall in and can't get out.

White Zinfandel. Now there's a doozy. If you ask James Mantone of Syncline Wine Cellars, he'd say it's "a rescue wine for old vineyards to carry over until someone arrives who knows what real wine is." But what would he do if white Zin was presented to him. "Wine is wine, drink it! Wine's not meant to be anything serious. I make rosé. It should be fun. Pink wine is fun," he grinned.

Mike Januik of Januik Winery recognized its more salvageable characteristic, noting white Zinfandel "is a wine that has made many people happy."

"White Zinfandel?" questioned Ted Baseler, chief executive of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. "Well, it's not grown in Washington. In fact, white Zinfandel is not grown anywhere." Then he did that charming Sinatra smile thing that makes you melt and blush all in one swoop. "Zinfandel is! And then they turn it into some kind of soft drink." (Still melting ...)

For those of us who put the lame in laymen, these are terms worth knowing and, more importantly, worth exploring if you're so inclined. Tom Hedges of Hedges Family Estate told me, in an off-dry, perfected French burr, "Ullage ees the petite spaaws between the cork and the top of the wine in the bottle."

Ring the bell, folks. We have a winner!

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