Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, indicating, or characterizing a variety, especially a biological variety.
- noun A wine made principally from one variety of grape and carrying the name of that grape.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In petrography, in the quantitative classification of igneous rocks (see
rock ), having the character of or producing a variety of a mode. - In biology, having the character of a zoölogical or botanical variety; subspecific, or of the character of a subspecies; racial, with reference to geographical variation; of or pertaining to varieties: variational: as, varietal characters; varietal differences or distinctions. See
variability , 2. variation, 8, and variety, 6.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a variety; characterizing a variety; constituting a variety, in distinction from an individual or species.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology Pertaining to a distinct
variety of organism. - adjective Made from a single specific
variety (especially of grapes in wine). - noun A
wine made primarily from or exclusively from a single variety of grape, which carries the name of that grape. - noun By extension, a
coffee made primarily from or exclusively from a single variety of coffee bean.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a wine made principally from one grape and carrying the name of that grape
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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My favorite red varietal is Syrah, and no one does it better.
Sasha Smith 2009
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I'm not a believer in varietal glassware yet, but this should be interesting.
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I'm not a believer in varietal glassware yet, but this should be interesting.
LENNDEVOURS: 2009
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I'm not a believer in varietal glassware yet, but this should be interesting.
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Hence, the varietal is sometimes called the "holy grail"; other times, it's the "heartbreak grape."
Wine 101: Pinot Noir Amy Ma 2010
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My favorite red varietal is Syrah, and no one does it better.
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My favorite red varietal is Syrah, and no one does it better.
LENNDEVOURS: 2008
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The premise is simple, buy two bottles of the same varietal from the same producer, one the 'regular' bottling and the other the 'reserve' and see how the juice inside those bottles differ.
Wine Blogging Wednesday #32 Announced -- Regular vs. Reserve 2007
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The premise is simple, buy two bottles of the same varietal from the same producer, one the 'regular' bottling and the other the 'reserve' and see how the juice inside those bottles differ.
LENNDEVOURS: 2007
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With the myriad of older vintages still for sale out there, it does not take a whole lot of digging to secure a few bottles of mature chenin blanc in a variety of sweetness levels and see what fans of the varietal are always blathering about.
Natural wines, premox, chenin blanc, 07 Port and Rhone – John Gilman | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009
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