Cuvee, cru and other gallicisms Loan words The French rule the world of wine, at least as far as much of the commonly used terminology is concerned. The most striking example is in the making of sparkling wine by the 'classic method' which the French claim to have invented, again in the face of an Italian theory which attributes it to Francesco Sacchi, a fourteenth century doctor from Fabriano. This does not alter the fact that the word used to define a set of different wines is a 'cuvée', the sugary syrups added are referred to as 'liqueur de tirage' and 'liqueur d'expedition', that disgorging is more grandly known as 'dégorgement', the racks where the bottles are riddled is known as pupitres and that the wine has more status if it is made only from grapes of a millésimé year. But this goes well beyond sparkling wine; like that magical term which identifies the ideal terrain/microclimate combination for a grape variety ('terroir'), the identification of a named vineyard ('cru'), right through to tasting, where a 'tastevin' (the sommelier's metal cup) is used to sample the full 'bouquet' (complex of tertiary aromas) of a wine.