Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

"planche" (wine)

English translation:

planky, excessively woody

Added to glossary by Karen Tucker (X)
Jun 13, 2004 17:37
19 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term

planche (wine)

French to English Social Sciences Wine / Oenology / Viticulture wine-tasting experiment
This is a word used to describe wine in a winetasting experiment. Does this mean that the wood taste is too strong? Is there an equivalent expression in English? I can't find this term in any glossaries or dictionaries. Thanks, Karen

3°) au niveau de l’approche hédonique : deux experts seulement donnent un jugement hédonique global sur les vins. Ce phénomène peut semble surprenant : les experts sont en effet connus pour livrer des jugements liés au plaisir que leur procurent les vins. Mais il vient de ce que la plupart des experts ont jugé les vins par l’intermédiaire de leur analyse du boisé : quand un bois est jugé mal marié avec le vin ou quand il est jugé apporter une note de planche ou de brûlé ...
Proposed translations (English)
5 +4 planky
4 lumber
4 (excessively) woody (as opposed to "oaky")

Proposed translations

+4
21 mins
Selected

planky

There are some stunning mature reds coming out of Rioja, but this is not one of them. Admittedly it's balanced, but it lacks the palate charm to get the wine drinkers reaching for the two fivers in their wallet. The planky oak and hard acidity left after the swallow suggest that one glass is plenty
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Peer comment(s):

agree Martine Brault
33 mins
cheers Traviata
agree Stephanie Mitchel
38 mins
cheers Stephanie
agree sarahl (X)
1 hr
cheers Sis
agree sujata
9 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Even though "excessively woody" has the same meaning, I chose "planky" because I needed a colloquial term (the term "planche" is twice used with quotation marks). But Bourth's very detailed explanation is extremely helpful with other parts of the text (thanks for taking so much time to research this). I just wish I could give you both points. Thanks very much. Karen "
18 mins

lumber

I think this is a description of the taste: the wine tastes like lumber because of the type of barrel it was stored in (probably new oak).
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5 hrs

(excessively) woody (as opposed to "oaky")

Definition:
Boisé, planche ou sciure ?...
Le caractère boisé n'apparaît pas d'une façon identique au cours de l'élevage pour chacun des lots d'une même provenance. Les «grains fins» cèdent plus rapidement le caractère boisé que les bois à «gros grain». Le vin élevé dans des fûts de merrains «grain fin» est souvent préféré au cours de la dégustation réalisée au bout de quelques mois d'élevage (3 à 6 mois). ensuite, et surtout pour certaines origines géographiques (et à notre surprise), nous constatons l'inverse : le même vin élevé dans des fûts à merrains «gros grain» de même origine géographique est préféré. La moins bonne appréciation du vin qui était préféré est due à un excès de boisé ayant tendance à masquer les caractères intrinsèques du vin. Ce caractère devenu trop intense perd la qualification de «boisé» pour être dénommé «planche ou sciure» et s'accompagne d'une certaine amertume gênante en bouche.
[http://www.onf.fr/foret/dossier/merrain/mer06.htm]

For "boisé" I have found "woodiness" and, possibly better, "oakiness". Unfortunately "sawdust" (sciure) is used by a number of wine critics as a desirable feature, it would appear (in the same way as I have seen wines described, praisingly, as having "the characteristic sh*t taste of Pinot Noirs" or "a tangy kerosene taste" (Chardonnay)).

It appears that woodiness can be both desirable and undesirable, so maybe you could talk about oakiness for "boisé" and woodiness for "planche".

Some details:

The better vineyards will age the wine for years in oak barrels, which infuses the wine with positive woody hints.
[www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/fakewine/fakewine.html]

woody
A wine that's been kept too long in barrels will take on an exaggerated oaky flavor and bouquet. This woody trait can overwhelm a wine's other components and is considered undesirable.
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.
[http://eat.epicurious.com/dictionary/wine/index.ssf?DEF_ID=3...]

“It’s too damn oaky!” That’s a common complaint these days. Before you curse the winemaker’s poor judgement or blame a French cooper you might like to consider another cause for this malady – corks.

Brent Marris, the talented owner of Wither Hills believes that corks give wine an extra boost of oaky flavour. So do I.

Marris recently bottled the latest vintage of Wither Hills Chardonnay. After the wine had been allowed to settle down in the bottle Marris tasted a couple of samples with Ben, his winemaker. “We both thought “bugger” the wine is just a tad too oaky”, explained Marris. “About half the wine was still in tank, waiting to be bottled. We tasted a tank sample. It showed a perfect balance of oak”.

Marris believes that cork adds an oaky taste to wine. “The tree that produces the wood for wine barrels is the same genus (Quercus) as the tree that produces corks for wine bottles. We suspect that at least some of the oaky taste in bottled wine comes from cork. The really scary thing is that different corks add different amounts of oak influence to wine”.
[http://www.bobcampbell.co.nz/readEssay.php?articleID=46]

WOODY

The smell or taste of the wooden containers in which wines are aged-usually strongest for wines aged in new barrels. The aromas and flavors of some wines are substantially benefited by the extra dimension garnered from the wood. However, wines that stay too long in the barrel become excessively woody and lose their interest. Oaky is a closely related term.
[http://www.wineaccess.com/expert/connoisseurs/reference-one....]

Woody
General term for an oaky wine in which wood characteristics dominate. Not usually complimentary.
[http://www.wine-lovers-page.com/cgi-bin/lexicon/gd.cgi?w=442]

winemakers often carry a good idea too far. Oak barrels have multiplied in cellars (asexually, we hope) until nearly every wine from some producers spends some time in 100 percent new oak. (The increasingly common phrase "200 percent new oak" means that wine was taken out of one set of barrels and transferred to a second, fresh set.) Winemakers also use specially designed square barrels, oak chips, barrels with extra oak staves in the middle, and even "liquid oak essence," all in an attempt to add more oak flavor to wine.
But oak is a very strong flavor, one that can easily dominate all but the fiercest grape juice. Big, bold red wines can often "soak up" oak and still taste like wine, but less-assertive reds and many whites simply collapse under the woody assault. Some winemakers will use identical oaking techniques for chardonnay (a big, fruity, "fat"-tasting grape) and sauvignon blanc (a more angular, subtle, "thin" grape), which results in an oaky chardonnay and an undrinkable bottle of oak juice labeled sauvignon blanc.
Winemakers will also claim that barrel-aging adds "complexity" to wine. This is nonsense: oak doesn't add complexity, it adds oak. Complexity is derived from the interplay of all of a wine's components -- fruit, acidity, tannin, structure -- of which oak is but one. Judiciously used oak can turn the right juice into a compelling expression of the winemaker's art, but all too often it obscures whatever character a wine might have had.
So what does oak taste like? Descriptors like toast, vanilla, butterscotch, and spice are common; when these flavors dominate, or take on a slightly bitter taste on the finish, there's a good chance the wine is overoaked. This bitterness can also indicate the use of oak chips or liquid oak, especially in inexpensive wines (oak is expensive, and the chance that a $10 chardonnay is extensively aged in high-quality French oak is . . . well, let's say it's unlikely).
The problem -- if you want to call it a problem -- is that people like the taste of oak. Early New World winemakers, unable to afford expensive French oak, turned to strongly flavored American and Slovenian oak barrels. By the time they could afford the less-intrusive French stuff, the New World palate was accustomed to strong oak flavors in wine. Of course, this made Old World wines taste "thin" to the wealthy New World market, so many French and Italian winemakers capitulated and started burying their wines in oak (often with disastrous consequences: the big, assertive flavors of American and Australian wine can handle a lot more oak). If you ever see one of the new "unwooded" Australian chardonnays, try serving it to a few casual wine drinkers alongside a regular, heavily oaked Aussie chard. Most non-wine geeks won't be able to identify (or like) the taste of the pure grape, because they're so used to chardonnay with a large dollop of wood.
[http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/food/99/01/14/UNCORKED....]
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