blanc -> blahn or blank?...

[newtowine]

i've heard it pronounced both ways...which is the correct one? (or even most prefered)....

same with sommelier...somm-lier or som-me-lier?...

thanks...

[R D'Orville]

Could it be > blonk
and then > som mah leer
anyway that's how I sez dem.

[tomstevenson]

If you don't speak French, don't worry about it. Even those who can and who work in the wine trade blunder (Mo-ay for Moet, for example, is a common error - in this case the t is hard). If you feel inimidated by a sommelier, call him smellier and ask whether he's been to Paris. When he answers, ask him whether he should not pronounce it "Paree" and whether he can pronounce Moscow in Russian, and who cares.

[Jerry D Mead]

If you want to get close...it's blawnc de blawnc

And it's sawm "L" yay

[baccho]

All very well to say who cares, but obviously the fellow wouldn't ask if he didn't want a proper answer. Never mind the fact that 9 out of 10 Americans don't pronounce these words properly, nor do they care to.

Correctly spoken (credentials: I grew up in France and speak French fluently. I now live in the Napa Valley and have worked for quite some time in the wine industry):

BLANC should be pronounced "blangh" -- as close an approximation as I can come up with because neither the n nor the c are actually pronounced. If you ever took French in school, it is that sort of nasalized n sound, you know...

As for sommelier, it is properly pronounced som-uh-lyé.

And that's that! Have fun with your new-found information...

Karen

[tomstevenson]

But when they get snooty, it's more fun to call them "smellier"!

[Thomas]

Thanks Baccho. I did not want to sound snooty; you informed without doing so. Being a man of Italian blood I do not appreciate the nomenclature "Eyetalian" even though I know it sometimes is in jest. Nothing wrong in trying to say it correctly, but much wrong in unwillingness to try.