Are wine names capitalized all the time?
In certain places like Wiki and wine websites they are capitalized, but in other places, like my dictionary and other websites and here they are not. Some of the wine names look natural in lower case, in my opinion. Are both uses valid?
ie Cabernet Franc, cabernet franc
Tagged with: cabernet franc • dictionary • lower case • wiki • wine names • wine websites
Filed under: All Things Wine
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This is a bit tricky, but, yes, I think they should be capitalized unless they’re something like "white wine", because almost all wine names are the proper name of the grape they are made from or the region they come from. Merlot, Shiraz, Zinfandel, are all names of grape types, like Lexus and Corolla are names of brands of cars. There are a few exception and there’s some flexibility, as with Champagne, which is a region in France that the stuff comes from, but it’s very commonly spelled without the capital letter, sort of like kleenex and jello should be capitalized but because they are often used to refer to something in a generic way without meaning that specific brand, they often don’t get the capital letter. A general type of wine that doesn’t refer to a grape type, like claret or rose, doesn’t need a capital. There are grey areas here, though, so it’s hard to generalize.
i think they should be because they are proper nouns
For strict grammatical correctness, wine names that are grape names are not capitalized except they may or may not be if a brand name is identified (XYZ Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance). Wine names that are also geographic locations, such as Crozes-Hermitage, are not capitalized if they follow a definite or indefinite article (a crozes-hermitage, the crozes-hermitage, etc.). Champagne is a special case: it is capitalized only if it refers to the wine from the legal Champagne area of France (as is also the sparkling wine Cava from Spain), where the use of the word is permitted generically (just a very few countries in the world) only a small c is proper (California champagne) in only those countries, but not in other countries even having the same language (one never encounters "California champagne" in the U.K., for example, but "California sparkling wine").
But, indeed, these rules are not always followed.