Five words to describe a wine you would like.

WINE TALK
21

Bold, layered, refined, flowery, poetic.

22

Stony, airy, red-fruited, succulent, subtle

23

Elegant, Balanced, Profound, Tertiary, Savoury.
But you got me at Elegant

…

I must be having a senior moment, didn’t we just have a thread like this a couple of weeks ago?

24

Latour,Rousseau,Coche,Dujac,Oenoteque

25

Bright red berry, bracing acidity. [wow.gif]

26

Silky, balanced, layered, elegant, tasty… [cheers.gif]

27

Anything from Elaine and Manfred.

28

Mineral, balanced, good acidity, fruity.

29

Exactly. For these to be useful descriptors to another person, so they actually got you a wine you like, they’d have to exclude wines you WON’T like.

If wines you dislike could fall into the description, then those five words actually do not guarantee you’d like a wine.

That’s the real challenge, imo.

30

For my current palate, here is my thought process – I will choose one word each for the color, nose, body, palate, and finish.

LONG FORM: Let me start by describing what I like in a sentence for each, then I will try to narrow it down.

Color: Ruby to Magenta, almost opaque, not cloudy

Nose: I love when there are floral scents like roses or violets mixed with black and blue fruit that is not overly candied, balanced with some leather or tobaccy. lol.

Palate: Non-jammy black and blue fruits with some red fruit.

Body: I prefer a medium-to-full bodied wine

Finish: Long with medium soft tannins. I like one or more of: wood, toast, coffee, dusty earth, dusty leather, tar, spice, smoke, black pepper, stemminess (not sure what the word is but I notice it more on whole-cluster pinots).


Short Form - 5 words (In order of Nose, Color, Body, Palate, Finish)

Magenta, Violet, Blackberry, Stately, Complex



Words I decided NOT to use because they would allow wines I DID not like into the mix… 'powerful". This could have allowed imbalanced massive dark new world wines with harsh tannins, and $15 supermarket palate-bashers in the door. I narrowed it to stately, majestic or patrician to speak to power and grandeur but still with some refinement

The hardest one to choose was the finish, because I can’t group the flavors I like solely into wood or spice, it’s kind of a combo. At least complex gives the impression the wine is decently made, has a lot going on (not simplistic and one-note), and LIKELY has length to the finish if we are calling the finish complex. The challenge is, the finish could easily include flavors I don’t like with that descriptor.

This is tough!

Final answer: Magenta, Violet, Blackberry, Stately, Complex

31

Fruit forward with long finish

Age and allergies have dulled my senses so these are actually minimum requirements for reds.

32

Detailed, evocative, wise, tensile, evolving.


It’s also fun to guess which wines people like from their 5 words:

Markus S: Fun, charming, balanced, contemplative, ready. Foillard Morgon
Soren Nielson: Mature, aromatic, balanced, expanding, eternal. DRC
Anton D: Well structured, austere, elegant, refined, deep. Latour
Brian Tuite: Funky, bright, earth, complex, chewy. Soldera
Brian Tuite(2): Deep, meaty, bloody, balance, chalk. Paolo Bea Sagrantino
IlkkaL: Savory, energetic, authentic, balanced, honest. Corison Cabernet
Mark Y: Complex, balance, mature, elegant, authentic/reflective of terroir. Clos St. Hune
Tim McCracken: Bold, layered, refined, flowery, poetic. Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris
Matthew King: Stony, airy, red-fruited, succulent, subtle. Etna Rosso
Richard Flack: Elegant, Balanced, Profound, Tertiary, Savoury. Lopez de Heredia
dsGriswold: Bright red berry, bracing acidity. Peay Pinot
T.L. Reasoner: Silky, balanced, layered, elegant, tasty. Guigal La-La’s
Bob Parsons: Mineral, balanced, good acidity, fruity. Keller Riesling
Barry Paul Price: Magenta, Violet, Blackberry, Stately, Complex. Matthiasson Cabernet
Randy Bowman: Fruit forward with long finish. Spottswoode

How well did I do?

33

Great idea, Raj! Let5’s see how well these words work to get people wines they like!

You definitely picked one I would enjoy!

34

“Soren Nielsen: Mature, aromatic, balanced, expanding, eternal. DRC”

Well done Rajiv, I was actually thinking of aged great Burgundy, -and I love DRC a lot. (Been some years since the last…)

35

For me: pure and complex are almost contrasts … “pure” meaning: only one major component (taste, smell) without additions of others …

[scratch.gif]

(maybe my bad English …?)

36

Slight amendment:

Rousseau at half the price

37

Bob Parsons: Mineral, balanced, good acidity, fruity. Keller Riesling
That would be nice but a toughie to find up here! Leitz, Hexamer, Flick will do.

38

Rajiv,

Good to see you posting again. How about recommendations that are $75-$100 or under? So if people haven’t tried the wines you suggest it’s affordable. I’ve added my recommendations to see how I did for those folks as well. Cool game. So, picking a wine for you isn’t really quite fair. I know you pretty well and I think I have a good idea of where your palate lands. However, I think you’ll really enjoy 2012 Château Simone Palette Blanc. It reminds me a bit of Musar blanc (see…told you I was cheating) and when Doug & I tasted it last year we were both blown away by the wine.


Markus S: Fun, charming, balanced, contemplative, ready. Deltetto Roero Braja Riserva
Soren Nielson: Mature, aromatic, balanced, expanding, eternal. Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino
Anton D: Well structured, austere, elegant, refined, deep. Elio Grasso Barolo
Brian Tuite: Funky, bright, earth, complex, chewy. La Spinetta Sezzana
Brian Tuite(2): Deep, meaty, bloody, balance, chalk. Voge Cornas VV
IlkkaL: Savory, energetic, authentic, balanced, honest. G. Mascarello Freisa
Mark Y: Complex, balance, mature, elegant, authentic/reflective of terroir. 1975 Château Lascombes (still under $100!)
Tim McCracken: Bold, layered, refined, flowery, poetic. Chapoutier St. Joseph Blanc Les Granits
Matthew King: Stony, airy, red-fruited, succulent, subtle. 2010 Travaglini Gattinara
Richard Flack: Elegant, Balanced, Profound, Tertiary, Savoury. N.V. Rare Wine Co. Thomas Jefferson Special Reserve
dsGriswold: Bright red berry, bracing acidity. JFM Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale
T.L. Reasoner: Silky, balanced, layered, elegant, tasty. 2011-13 Poggio di Sotto Rosso
Bob Parsons: Mineral, balanced, good acidity, fruity. Gérard Boulay Sancerre Monts Damnés
Barry Paul Price: Magenta, Violet, Blackberry, Stately, Complex. Egelhoff Cabernet
Randy Bowman: Fruit forward with long finish. Flor de Pingus

39

No they are not mutually exclusive. You can be pure and complex. With “pure” we wanted to encapsulate two ideas. One the obvious one; nothing extraneous in such as oak, and secondly allowing the “purity” of the terroir to show.

40

Beautiful, aromatic, balanced, complex, and clean.