L’Anglais pour le Vigneron – 1

Récemment, j’ai créé un stage pour un client qui travaillait dans le vignoble. Mon client voulait pouvoir parler avec confiance aux visiteurs anglophones sur les processus de culture des raisins, de vinification et de bouteille de vin ainsi que de pouvoir fournir avec confiance un service à la clientèle et des conseils de vente.

Il s’est avéré que cela pourrait être très utile à beaucoup de gens en France (avec des clients venant d’Amérique, Canada, Australie et Nouvelle-Zélande ainsi que le Royaume-Uni), j’ai donc décidé d’offrir une partie de la langue dans mon blog . C’est un sujet énorme donc j’ai pris une petite section du sujet.

Je suis d’origine écossaise, donc vous devez comprendre que ma connaissance du processus était limitée. Je n’avais pas d’autre choix que de rechercher le sujet. Il a fallu quelques dégustations … hic! Mais surtout, j’ai lu des sites Web et des livres, ce qui sans surprise, offert plus de perspicacité. Voici une partie de la langue que j’ai utilisée dans ma stage dans son contexte.

J’ai inclus quelques indices en français.

The vine.

Vines (vignes) like to climb, therefore many winegrowers use posts (poteau) linked by wires called a trellis. How the vines are trained on a trellis is an artform (Forme d’art), designed to ensure maximum exposure of leaves and grapes to sunlight (lumière).

The procedure of cutting back the vines, severely in winter and lightly over the summer, is called pruning or to prune (pruneau).

Some vines, if pruned harshly enough can grow without a trellis and these are called ‘goblet’ vines or ‘bush’ vines. These are sometimes considered to produce (produire) superior grapes because they are more deeply rooted (bien enraciné).

Phylloxera devastatrix sounds like something from an Asterix comic however, its impact on wine growers was literally Devastatrix (devastating – dévastateur)! The aphid came to Europe from America in the nineteenth century and caused around 20 years of damage to vineyards and winelovers alike.

Because of its arrival, most vines have been grafted (greffé) from two species – American Vitis which had become resistant and Vitis vinifera.

Areas with sandy soil (sol)seem to have avoided the impact of Phylloxera and retain ungrafted vines.

Here are a few notes on writing an email for business purposes…

Note: communications are becoming much less formal these days but if the person you are writing to is unknown to you, its best to err on the side of caution and be more formal.

Standard openings – Formal

Dear Sir/Madam (if you have no contact names)

To Whom It May Concern (if you have no contact names) – used rarely as it is quite old fashioned.

Possibly better to use FAO (For the Attention Of) sales/reception/complaints department, usually to a generic company email address such as sales@, info@ or complaints@.

You are more likely to use …

Dear Mr Smith/Dear John

Dear Mrs Jones/Dear Jane

Standard openings – Informal

Hi John/Jane

Hey there! (American)

Starting the email

My name is … and I am contacting you because…

If you have spoken to the person on the phone and you are following up by email…

Further to our conversation, …

Thanks for your time this afternoon/this morning, …

As discussed, please find attached my quotation/CV for your consideration.

When applying for a job (Be formal!)

I wish to apply for the position (reference …) as advertised on jobsite/reed/monster/etc etc.

I am the ideal candidate for the role because…

[List what you can bring to the role]

I have attached my CV for your consideration, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Signing off

Kind regards – this is the most common sign off that you will see, in fact most business people have this as part of their automated email signature. It covers both formal and informal.

You may also see Best regards although this is uncommon.

These are extremely formal:

Yours Sincerely/Faithfully – you use Sincerely if you have begun the message with Dear Mr FamilyName/Mrs FamilyName. You only use Faithfully if you have begun Dear Sir/Madam (or TWIMC) ie you don’t know their name.

I hope this comes in useful but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me a message!