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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3970 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The wine industry must adapt or die

    there are those that embrace and project the snobbery that you speak of and there are those that embrace the utility of such descriptions.

If a server tells me that a gewurtztraminer is "fruity and full" she'll often follow up with "would you like to try a little." If Wine Spectator tells me a gewurtztraminer is "fruity and full" they'll say "hints of apple and cranberry with a florid finish and notes of cork and leather - 84/100." This is not entirely Wine Spectator's fault - they can't offer you a sip.

And that's what I mean - it's dancing about architecture. Tastes are best shared by tasting. You can do that on a local scale. You can't do that on a global scale. So when you're trying to sell someone a $38 pinot grigio at Safeway, "stupid language" is all you got.

That's why I think "die" is far more likely than "adapt" - it's easy to buy a bunch of wine from a local vintner because you can taste it and know it's good. It's hard to justify a $70 bottle of anything via words alone because the words aren't adequate.