Why yet another wine blog? R.D Emerson said, "Language is the archive of history". How true this is when we look at wine and the descriptors used to explain its aroma, taste and other characteristics. To a novice the whole winespeak is baffling, puffy, aristocratic, traditional and archaic. Words are necessary to express concepts, abstracts, emotions and everything we hear see and feel. We use nouns and adjectives to describe things and states. We need words to hook these onto.Where did wine connoisseurs find these wine descriptors or the jagon associated with wine? It is definitely not from China or India! From my viewpoint as a linguistics scholar, the wine language we read about and hear at wine tasting events is predominantly Western-European, traditional, historical and middle to aristocratic vocabulary. Dare I say an element of snobbery.
From a sociolinguistic or sociocultural perspective, the currrent wine jargon is a genre biased towards the Western culture and context and is therefore of little relevance to the Oriental or emerging social contexts.
So why have I started this blog? Firstly, I am an Asian but English educated and can present my "other worldview". Secondly, my credentials in Applied Linguistics and Wine has made me only too aware of the mismatch in wine and culture. As an Oriental, I see the Old World producers trying to rush to Asia to sell their wines. But the wine language they speak is somewhat alien in the Asian context. Try explaining "hints of blackberry" to an Indian as if this fruit grows in his backyard. Duh!
Is it time for a change in winespeak? Is there a need for wine and culture to "blend"?
15 comments:
This is a fascinating area, Adon, one in which you clearly have both personal and professional interest. Here in China we are continually addressing how those new to wine are most likely to describe what's in their glasses. If consumption of international wines continues to grow here, I fully expect a Chinese vocabulary for describing wine to emerge and its most obvious reference points will derive from the immensely active food culture (or cultures), already replete with multiple ways of describing texture, mouthfeel ('kougan') and myriad aromas and flavours. We are already developing our own tasting profiles based on Chinese responses to wine and I expect this to become ever more exciting in future. Although taste is necessarily contingent on culture and local/personal perceptions, at the same time I imagine that the so-called 'international consensus' for describing international wine styles will itself change as we are increasingly exposed to different ways of describing smells and tastes. In my view, the emergence of various New World countries, especially Australia, as not only producers of reliable, commercial wines but great wines too, has already challenged the Western European conception of wine describe.
Edward Ragg
www.longfengwines.com/wine
'conception of wine you describe'
Edward Ragg
Dear Adon
Sounds likes a very interesting topic. I look forward to your future posts.
Talking about similes used to describe wines, the first time I said that a wine reminded me of kiwifruit, I was told I could not use that descriptor because it was not part of the "official wine language" - but to me, from the land of kiwifruit, it was very real and what the fruit in the wine reminded me of.
So blackberry might be meaningless to someone in India who does not grow blackberry in his back yard, but very meaningful to those who spread their toast with blackberry jam every morning.
The thing is, I don't think there can be a universal wine language. It would make wine very boring.
Yet, for many the description of the wine is unnecessary - it is the "points" that people want.
An MW from New Zealand.
You make an excellent and timely point, Adon, and I wish you the best of luck with making progress with less western ways of describing wine.
I suspect that in some contexts (academe and more commercial research, for example) a universal language may be useful, but in real life it seems shocking to me that anyone should be told that there is one 'correct' way of describing wine.
Thank you for raising this important issue.
This looks as if it will be an interesting blog, Adon, and I'm curious to see where you go with it. Are you going to write about individual wines from an Asian standpoint, or at least trying to establish an Asian point of view and vocabulary? Or will it be more theoretical? As Jancis implies, there is no "official" language for wine, simply an agreed-upon vocabulary that must always change, just as styles of writing and talking about wine constantly change. Because, as we all seem to agree, language and perception depend so much upon culture, I doubt that a "universal" language for wine would be useful, because it would reduce the vocabulary to dull abstract concepts.
Good luck with you venture.
Adon, I'd like to add my best wishes to those you have already received. I agree with Jancis et al about the questionable desirability of creating an "officially endorsed" wine vocabulary for the world as a whole.
As a writer, I've come in for a certain amount of flak for descriptions I have come up with. But that flak came from a wide range of sources - from Gallic wine writers and older British Masters of Wine (ones of a narrow-mind quite unlike that of Ms Robinson, I should add), to newspaper readers (almost invariably male) who could not see why wine should taste of anything but grapes.
I think there are two areas that could be usefully explored. First, there are the names for faults. I recall a French producer swatting down my suggestion that one of his wines was "reduced" - which it was. To him, the wine simply "renard"ed a bit (was a bit foxy. Brettanomyces is another fault whose name is often ommitted, especially in the old world. Second, there are the local cultural references. You've already alluded to the uselessness of blackcurrant and cassis in India, but gooseberry is just as unknown to North Americans. "Herbaceous" also has different connotations, depending on where it is used. In Europe the term might come with good marks (for a white), while in the US it might be a negative. Traditional British wine buffs see no problem in a Riesling developing a "petrolly" aroma. But in Australia, kerosene can be a characteristic of which a producer might be ashamed. And what are non-Australians to make of "lollyish" and "mousey"?
Having an online resource which addresses regional usage could be very useful.
Thanks for your feedback. It is encouraging to note that there are well-recognised wine gurus out there who support my view. I am not advocating the introduction of an universal wine language. As others have said, this would be unachievable and inappropriate. This has been already tried in the English language world and failed.In my new posts I will be elaborating further on the various aspects of language genres and contextualisation. We will discuss some interesting research already done on wine and language. So watch this space.
Adon
A fantastic idea for a blog, Adon. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!
Not a bad start at all if you get Jancis chiming in on your first blog post. Personally, I'm two years into my wine blog and I'm still waiting for Mary Ewing-Mulligan to take me up on an arm-wrestling challenge I issued to her months ago...
Cheers!
Looks like a very interesting topic and I wish you every success !
You've picked on a very valid aspect of the growing wine culture especially in our part of the world. In India, to say, “a lively, upfront nose" might make sense, but if I were to follow this up with “rich, blackberry-like fruit and whiff of liquorice” I would lose the average Indian reader who is trying to make sense of this wonderful new beverage that everyone is drinking and wants to understand. I use wine producers' tasting notes as a guide and encourage my readers to use local descriptors where appropriate. It's the only way to make wine more accessible and popular. I'll be reading your posts and I'm sure Indian wine enthusiasts will find the topic very interesting.
Nice twist on the subject of winespeak, which I do not believe is not snobby per se, just frozen in its evolution. A thesaurus of sorts would be a useful tool in bridging descriptors. Love to know the Indian equivalent of 'forest floor notes' or the Asian equivalent of a cranberry flavour...
Dear Adon,
The third post above, which you posted as an 'Anonymous' post from my email to you, the last line says 'An MW from New Zealand'. A Master of Wine I am not. A Mistress of Whine I
may be.
Cheers,
Sue Courtney
Sorry. I should have said, a wine judge.
Adon nice work my man! Keep up the hustle :)
--
Gary Vaynerchuk
http://garyvaynerchuk.com/about
Host of Wine Library TV
adon
Just the space I needed in the new wine world. You articulate the "freeing" of wines from domain ownership to a multilateral interdependent and acceptable approach. The revolution was long overdue.
You lead and we shall follow..best of luck
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