Meaning & use
enoteca
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Meanings
nouncountable
A shop or bar, especially in Italy, that sells and often serves wine, sometimes with small plates of food.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'an enoteca' or 'two enotecas'. The plural is usually 'enotecas' in English, though Italian 'enoteche' sometimes appears.
Patterns
- an enoteca in + place
- go to an enoteca
- a wine bar called an enoteca
We spent the afternoon in a small enoteca near the Ponte Vecchio, tasting local Chianti.
The guidebook lists an enoteca where you can buy bottles and also order a glass at the counter.
After dinner we walked to an enoteca that stayed open until midnight.
nouncountablerarespecialist
A collection or library of wines, or a place devoted to storing and studying wine.
Grammar: This sense is rarer and mostly appears in formal or specialist writing about wine culture.
Patterns
- a historic enoteca
- the enoteca's collection
The old monastery now houses an enoteca with hundreds of regional labels.
He wrote his thesis on the enoteca as a social institution in northern Italy.
Word forms
| plural | enotecas |
|---|---|
| Italian plural (less common in English) | enoteche |
Common combinations
- a traditional enoteca
- A traditional enoteca will often pour wine by the glass as well as sell bottles.
- an enoteca in Tuscany
- They found an enoteca in Tuscany that served only wines from within ten miles.
- stop at an enoteca
- On the walking tour we stopped at an enoteca for a quick tasting.
- an enoteca serving small plates
- The new enoteca serving small plates has become popular with local office workers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wine bar
- The ordinary English term for a place that serves wine by the glass; use it when you are not referring specifically to an Italian-style venue.
- wine shop
- Focuses on selling bottles to take away, whereas an enoteca often also lets you drink on the premises.
- vinoteca
- A near-equivalent borrowed from Spanish or Italian, used in similar travel and food writing.
Word family
- enotecaria noun
- Rare Italian-derived term for a woman who runs an enoteca; hardly used in English.
Commonly confused: enoteca or enamel? enoteca or encyclopedia?
enoteca vs enamel
Sounds vaguely similar at the start but means a hard glossy coating, not a wine bar.
enoteca vs encyclopedia
Both begin with 'en-', which can cause slip-of-the-eye confusion, but the meanings are unrelated.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'enoteca' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
An enoteca is a wine shop or wine bar, so the sentence about tasting wines in Rome fits. The other options treat it as a car part, a medicine, or a picture, which are not its meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “enoteca”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.