Do you find it hard to describe wine?

[Roy Hersh]

Is it the vocabulary or is it putting the aromas and flavors into words that you find most difficult?

[Luc Gauthier]

All three represent for me definite obstacles .
Not one sticks out .
Although if I cant describe a port in English , I can usualy find the words in " La langue de Molière ".
In time , the vocabulary and the ability to describe aromas will come .
Part of the difficulties arise in the fruit .
Havent tasted enough VP to be able to say with a certain degree of certainty wich fruit I detect .
Part is a pre disposition to easier detect odors .

[Scott Anaya]

For me it is identifying the aromas, especially the fruit components. I grewu p in the Midwest (US) eating meat & potatoes.....I was picky and ate very little fruit and vegetables which hinders my wine tasting ability today quite a bit. I can say "apple" I have a hard time identifying which apple it is, a Macintosh? A Granny Smith? etc.

[Moses Botbol]

I get stuck with the same familar flavors over and over. I notice that when drinking with strangers, they use their flavor groups over and over. Like we each have our own core of flavors that we are better at recognizing.

Worst thing is I am quite sensitive to TCA, and could miss out a million other things going on in the same glass.

I hope to drink with more experts to "put the flavor with name", and I would prefer to do this with dry wine vs. port.

[Glenn E.]

Every time I see this thread, the only response that pops into my head is "it depends on how much of it I've had!"

For a while, my obstacle was vocabulary. But that solves itself rather quickly, so now my challenge is in identifying the flavors and aromas. I frequently find myself struggling to put a name to something that I can easily detect, but just can't quite figure out. That's when I end up using strange descriptors in my tasting notes - ground mustard being a recent one. It's when there's a flavor or aroma there, but I just can't quite put my finger on it.

I've found that tasting with a group helps a lot, but only if we all take a few minutes to taste first in order to get our initial impressions written down, and THEN start discussing what we're experiencing. Otherwise I find that my notes end up being a summary of everyone else's.