翻譯小工的敲鍵盤日記

有譯者朋友在蒐集「你適合做翻譯嗎？」的測驗題，突然想到以前曾經給學生當課堂翻譯練習的這篇文章。廢話不多說，請看。

問題：請問文章中的vintage各是什麼意思？

Almost all still wines come from a single vintage, and the labels on the bottles will show the wine’s vintage. Fortified and sparkling wines, including Champagne, tend to be non-vintage, however. This is because they are frequently created from a blend of different vintages, with the aim of creating a consistent ‘house’ style’. The exception to this particular rule, however, is that, in an outstanding year, Vintage Champagne will be made. In this case, it is down to the producer to decide whether a year is sufficiently good to produce a single vintage wine. Only then will the decision be made as to whether a vintage will be declared. Why should one vintage be any different from another? The answer lies in the weather of the growing regions. Heavy rains in Australia in 1993 resulted in a disastrous vintage of light wines. Five years later, the warm summer of 1998 gave rise to an exceptional vintage. 

vin·tage
n.

1. The yield of wine or grapes from a vineyard or district during one season.
2. Wine, usually of high quality, identified as to year and vineyard or district of origin.
3. The year or place in which a wine is bottled.
4.  The harvesting of a grape crop; The initial stages of winemaking.

1. Informal.
   1. A group or collection of people or things sharing certain characteristics.
   2. A year or period of origin: a car of 1942 vintage.
   3. Length of existence; age.

adj.

1. Of or relating to a vintage.
2. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.
3. Old or outmoded.
4. Of the best: played songs that were vintage Cole Porter; Of the most distinctive: “Fatalism has coexisted with vintage American overconfidence” (Thomas Oliphant).

Wine Glossary

1. The harvest of grapes and making of a wine.
2. The year a wine's grapes were harvested.
3. The wine of a given year. A vintage wine will invariably be labelled with the year of its vintage. By European Union rules, if a wine is to be called vintage at least 85% of it must come from grapes harvested in that year. In the U.S., 95% is the requirement. A non-vintage wine is one that is blended from wines of different years.