Wine speak: One person’s “Old World” is anothers “garbage and poop.”
The year I spent working in the tasting room at a local winery was one of the most educational and fascinating experiences I’ve had. I learned a great deal about wine, and even more about people.
A myriad of tasters visit Walla Walla every year to discover what the hype is all about, and working in “the trenches,” especially during the spring and summer, exposed me to a rainbow of colorful characters and a vocabulary that was at once daunting and charming.
“lush tannins…elegant acidity…fruity yet precocious.”
Well, I don’t know what any of that means. Granted, tannins and acidity are a part of the structure of a wine and are not “dead words” to any self-respecting wine guru. Wine can be fruity, and precocious is a term used in botany to describe early ripening in plants, so that’s not entirely out of left field.
I am not saying that talking about tannins or acidity is not useful when you describe a wine. I am not saying that we should not strive to expand our knowledge of wine vocabulary as we strive to expand our palates. And I am absolutely not saying that the language one person uses to talk about wine is better or worse than any other.
I simply encourage wine tasters to find their own language for talking about wine. Write your own tasting notes! You can even share your tasting notes with others on community driven sites like ours.
Just as every person’s palate is different, every person has a different way to communicate what their palate detects. If the Sauvignon Blanc you’re sipping tastes like dishwasher detergent, don’t church it up because Robert Parker said it had floral notes with overlying flavors of tropical fruits.
