Meaning & use
garagiste
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Meanings
nouncountablespecialist
a small independent winemaker, especially one in France who makes wine in limited amounts
Grammar: Countable and used mainly in wine writing: 'a garagiste', 'the garagistes'.
Patterns
- a garagiste in somewhere
- the garagistes of somewhere
The garagiste produces only a few thousand bottles a year.
A group of garagistes in Bordeaux began making richer, fruitier wines.
Collectors pay high prices for bottles from well-known garagistes.
nouncountablerare
a person who repairs cars as a small business, especially in France
Grammar: This is the original French meaning and is rare in English; it is countable.
Patterns
- take something to a garagiste
In French, a garagiste is simply a mechanic who runs a repair shop.
The English wine sense comes from the idea of a winemaker working in a garage.
Word forms
| plural | garagistes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a Bordeaux garagiste
- A Bordeaux garagiste can sell out a new vintage in days.
- garagiste wine
- Garagiste wine is often bold and heavily oaked.
- a famous garagiste
- The region's most famous garagiste started with one small plot.
- garagiste movement
- The garagiste movement changed how critics judged Bordeaux.
Synonyms and how they differ
- boutique winemaker
- A clearer English phrase for the same idea; use it if your reader may not know French.
- small producer
- More general and not limited to wine; a garagiste is specifically a small winemaker.
Word family
- garage noun
- a building for keeping or repairing cars; the source of the French word
Commonly confused: garagiste or garage?
garagiste vs garage
A garage is a building or repair shop; a garagiste is a person, usually a winemaker in English wine writing.
Practice
In wine articles, a garagiste is best described as ___.
Choose one answer.
A garagiste is a small independent winemaker, often in France. A factory owner or shop manager is too large or the wrong role, and a grape picker is a worker, not a producer.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “garagiste”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.