Mike Tommasi wrote:
> The real etymology:
>
> Cabernet refers to a game that had developed in Aquitaine a few decades
> before the 1855 classification of the local crus. At the time there was
> a large scottish community, and when the caber ******* met with the
> local football players, they decided to replace the ball with a large
> stick. The ******* had to chuck the big stick (actually a tree trunk)
> into each other's net, hence the name "caber-net" (pron: cay-behr-net).
> When the french ******* scored, it was called a caber-net franc. When
> the scottish ******* scored, it was called a caber-net sauvignon (they
> were considered wild men, and their mascot was a cat that was often
> caught peeing on the caber). The players of this novel game were
> reputedly very strong from all the tossing, so they always were picked
> to do the local vendange. They were an eager lot, and even introduced
> the notion of "batonnage" - they could not resist tossing even in the
> chai. In their honour, the local grapes were named after their favourite
> game.
>
> By the way, the "petit verdot" was named after the habit the scottish
> ******* had of asking for a "petit verre d'eau" after each score. The
> french drank wine instead, insisting that the water was no good, every
> time they scored they would drink a glass of wine and loudly intone
> "merde l'eau", thus naming that other great grape of the region.
>

Brilliant! Only an expert tosser could come up with an ejaculation
such as merde l'eau!

-E