Eric A. visits The Muscadet

S

SFJoe

Joe Dougherty
How come it's "The Muscadet" and "The Argentine" and "The Levant," or "The Lebanon"? I know we've discussed it before, but I'm too lazy to search.

Anyhow, intrepid NYT Chief Wine Critic Eric Asimov has visited the wine region south of Nantes and comes back to us with some portraits of key personalities, some mentions of wines ('89 Bregeon?? Sign me up) and some discussion of issues in the region that will be familiar to many regulars here.

I would have liked to see Fred's feet held a bit closer to the fire on "experimental cuvees," which seem to occupy a lot of his attention, perhaps a bit more critical view of the nature of the generational handoff, and several times the number of words in the article about terroir, but that's just me.

But the article presents a good occasion for a discussion around these and other global issues of the region. Do you think that Taurus is the proper new direction for Muscadet?

What terroir makes the most distinctive and interesting wines?

What could possibly replace Jo Landron's mustache in the market?
 
maybe there's a pun in here too clever for moi (wouldn't be surprising), but there's no mention of "the muscadet" in the article.

are you thinking of the ukraine?
 
Yeah, I've always wondered how come we go to "school" or "church" but also go to "the bank" or "the hospital."

Why isn't it always the same?
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
Yeah, I've always wondered how come we go to "school" or "church" but also go to "the bank" or "the hospital."

Why isn't it always the same?
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I think the idea is that when we go to school or church, we're engaged in an activity in a category place name. We would go to the Episcopal Church of the Last resort on the corner of Doubtful and Unlikely if we named the church. We always go to a specific bank, even if we don't name it.

On the other hand, it may be arbitrary usage. There is a lot of that. I teach at American University. A past president tried us all to start calling it The American University, but everybody laughed to hard.
 
I attended the University of Chicago and taught at the Ohio State University; both places stressed the "the" to the point that some wags refer to the latter as tOSU.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
maybe there's a pun in here too clever for moi (wouldn't be surprising), but there's no mention of "the muscadet" in the article.

are you thinking of the ukraine?
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No mention, except in the echoes of my brain.

Jonathan, 100 miles southwest of you is an institution with bumper stickers that call it "The University." So there.
 
I know about the University of the South, but that's more like 600 miles away. I have the sinking feeling you're talking about Mr. Jefferson's University, which I've always thought was a pompous enough sobriquet. And I know some perfectly nice people in their English department, too.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
...Mr. Jefferson's University, which I've always thought was a pompous enough sobriquet...
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I always took it as a sign of insularity--that the people who call it that never got far enough from home to see another example.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I think the idea is that when we go to school or church, we're engaged in an activity in a category place name. We would go to the Episcopal Church of the Last resort on the corner of Doubtful and Unlikely if we named the church. We always go to a specific bank, even if we don't name it.
Click to expand...
Hm. I note that Americans say, "I went to the hospital for my injuries" while a Brit says, "I went to hospital for my injuries." Is specificity lacking in the mother land of the language?
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Do you think that Taurus is the proper new direction for Muscadet?

What terroir makes the most distinctive and interesting wines?

What could possibly replace Jo Landron's mustache in the market?
Click to expand...
No.

I think the granite in Clisson makes a convincing case.

Oh, goodness, let's all say grape names together. Not so funny as the other but so sincere.
 
Damn. There was a Muscadet from a producer I'd never heard of at my new local shop - Oberkampf Verre Volé - and I forgot to buy it. Will have to wait until next week.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I think the idea is that when we go to school or church, we're engaged in an activity in a category place name. We would go to the Episcopal Church of the Last resort on the corner of Doubtful and Unlikely if we named the church. We always go to a specific bank, even if we don't name it.
Click to expand...
Hm. I note that Americans say, "I went to the hospital for my injuries" while a Brit says, "I went to hospital for my injuries." Is specificity lacking in the mother land of the language?
Click to expand...

Well, one could argue that Americans always mean to inform you about the place to which they are going while Brits mean to tell you about the type of place to which they are going. As long as "the" has a meaning, you can construe sentences with and without it to have different meanings in trivial ways. Which doesn't mean it really isn't arbitrary usage in the end.
 
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