Do You Taste What I Taste?
Plum, leather, vanilla, lavender, hay, dirt, mushroom, barnyard funk, pencil shavings, black cherry, red cherry… The descriptors used to explain the tastes and smells of wine are as vast as the number of wine grapes grown. Opening a new bottle of wine is like opening a box of chocolates, you just never know what you are going to get. Will you be greeted with an abundance of fruit, the creaminess of caramel, or the earthiness of mushrooms and leaves? Sometimes, deciphering wine notes is as easy as the apple pie the wine tastes like. Other times, you have a note that is literally on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t quite place what it is. I recently went through a perplexing bottle that got me thinking about all of these wine notes, and the headaches they occasionally bring. Upon opening a new bottle the other day, after much sniffing, swirling and gargling, I was having a hard time ded...