Community Tasting Note

Diderot Likes this wine:

Saturday, September 10, 2022 - This dark, luscious blend of 50% Sangiovese and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon is more than a match for the proverbial grilled ribeye. It's ready to drink now and will hold for another 5 years or so.

Alas, the Winemaker's Notes contain some of the most dreadful prose I have read in some time. In wine-reviewing circles, bad (dare I say "purple"?) prose is not at all uncommon. The Winemaker says "Dark ruby red in color with purple reflections, the nose opens..." A "nose" is a set of aromas, not a set of colors. The wine itself is dark ruby red with purple reflections, but the sentence is clearly ascribing these colors to the nose. This is called bad writing. (If your nose, moreover, were dark ruby red in color with purple reflections, then you have been drinking way too much.) The dreadful prose continues, as we learn the flavor "evolves like a balsamic explosion." So do explosions often evolve? I merely ask the question. In my limited experience, an explosion is usually sudden and often loud. If you watched a film of one in slow-motion, perhaps it could appear to evolve but not otherwise.

I am happy with this wine, as were my fellow tasters at a tasting last night. But we are already beset by precious and inane wine lingo, like "sourcing" grapes (didn't we used to just buy them?), or "pairing" salmon with a white Burgundy (isn't it ok to just say they taste good together?). Do we really need to do such execrable things to the English language? As silly as anything is the addition of the meaningless word "point" to the word "price." Hence, "price point." Huh? The word "price" is enough. We all know generally what that word means. You don't need to be all fussy and say "price point." If you want to advertise the notion that wine is for precious snobs, this kind of language does it well. But for the rest of us, who love our mother tongue, it's enough to enjoy wine without tarting up the experience by adopting silly affectations like these.
Thank you.

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