Wine Word of the Week: Enoteca

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is enoteca.

Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Enoteca is a term used frequently in Italy for a wine shop with a significant range of high-quality wines, as opposed to a bottiglieria, a shop with a more pedestrian selection, and a vineria, run by a vinaio, more of a tavern, in which wine is sold by the glass as well as by the bottle. Various enoteche in Italy offer tasting facilities and some serve food to accompany the wines—from the mere appetite-stimulating to the most ambitious haute cuisine. The word comes from the same root as oenotria, the Ancient Greeks’ name for Italy, and theke, Greek for a case or receptacle.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
Enoteca is a wine shop that typically offers tastings and small bites in addition to selling wines. Originating in Italy, the term is now used in other parts of the world as well. An enoteca often focuses on the wines of a particular region.

Wine Word of the Week: Enoteca was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.