taille
/tɑːj
/ /taj/noun (plural pronounced same)
1(In France before 1789) a tax levied on the common people by the king or an overlord.The main direct tax, the taille, was levied on persons in central provinces, but on land in peripheral ones like Languedoc....
- The common tax - the taille - was increased to finance French foreign policy and this was organised by the chancellor Antoine Duprat.
- Nevertheless, in most provinces, nobles continued to escape the oldest basic direct tax, the taille, not to mention forced labour on the roads.
2 Music, historical The register of a tenor or similar voice, or an instrument of this register.There were two other forms of tenor: the taille, which probably looked like a large straight oboe with an angled brass crook, and the oboe da caccia, curved like the cor anglais but with a flared brass bell instead of the bulb.
3 [mass noun] The juice produced from a second pressing of the grapes during winemaking.Separating the juice as it leaves the press yields 20.5hl of 'cuvée' (the first pressing) and 5hl of 'taille' (the second pressing)....
- The different juices - the auto-pressing, the cuvée and the taille - are then collected and poured into either oak or cement measuring vats called 'belons'.
- Juice from the second pressing - the Taille - is not used to make Champagne de Venoge.
3.1Low-quality wine made from a second pressing of the grapes."White Foil is composed of wines drawn only from the cuvee (the first, light pressing) and, where appropriate, the taille (second pressing), which provides a higher proportion of essential tannins....
- The taille, which is produced by the second pressing, is sold off.
Origin
French, from Old French: see tail2.