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ABSTRACT. The goal of this study is twofold: verification that the wine tasting sheet may be considered "genre", as it meets the definitional requirements determined by Swales (1990) and the adequacy of the Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) for the analysis of this genre within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. 110 English and Spanish tasting sheets were extracted from the Internet and grouped into four corpora created ad hoc for Spain, Australia, California and New Zealand. Subsequent analysis has demonstrated positive polarization of the texts and significant differences in the appraisal verbalization through the use of terms related to fruit (WordSmith Tools), oenological or adjectives; free and quasi literary style of English texts contrasts strongly with the sobriety of the Spanish notes.
KEY WORDS. Genre, tasting sheet, wine tasting note, SFL, Appraisal theory.
RESUMEN. El objetivo de este estudio es doble: verificar que la nota de cata de vino se puede considerar "un género", puesto que reúne los requisitos de la definición formu- lada por Swales (1990) y la adecuación de la Teoría de la valoración (Martin y White 2005) para el análisis de este género dentro del marco de la Lingüística Sistémico-Fun- cional. 110 notas de cata se extrajeron de Internet y se agruparon en cuatro corpus crea- dos a propósito para España, Australia, California y Nueva Zelanda. Los análisis posteriores han demostrado una polarización positiva de los textos, así como diferencias significativas de verbalización valorativa en los términos relacionados con la fruta (WordSmith Tools), los enológicos o los adjetivos; el estilo libre y casi literario de los tex- tos en lengua inglesa contrasta enormemente con la sobriedad de las notas españolas.
PALABRAS CLAVE. Género, nota de cata de vino, LSF, Teoría de la valoración.
1. INTRODUCTION
Outstanding growth in quality wine consumption in the Western World has triggered the need for knowledge "about wine", becoming a real social must for those considering themselves at the social cutting edge. The ubiquity of winespeak in the media made it widespread and cryptic at the same time; the scale of the phenomenon, even limiting the scope of the research only to Spain, can be easily envisaged: Falcó (2004) and Ratti (2000) publish popularizing books; Spanish wine tasting lexicon becomes subject of lexical and...