English Major with too much time on her hands trashes wine writing...

[Botafogo]

First, read this

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i26/26b01501.htm


My response, in short, to the person who sent me this (he is a scientist and wine sceptic):

That person started with an agenda (make fun of wine critcism) and then just plugged in amusing examples out of context. Very lazy if you ask me.

YES, wines can and do have the same olfactory chemicals that give everything from bananas to marigolds to road tar their distinctive aromas and YOU of all people should know that. Yes, wet dog and also wet saddle, forest floor and compost. See if anyone you know knows anyone in the wine chemistry department at UC Davis. They will explain it all to you in excruciating, scientifically repeatable detail.

As to using architectural, emotional and gender descriptions, this is especially commonplace in classical music and fine art writing and is the way a cultured mind works: finding patterns and similarities in seemingly abstract information.

Re gender, there is no question that a big, phat Barbera made from partially dried grapes is the vinous equivalent of a cute 17 year old latina with a big ol butt and that a hard as nails, too tannic to drink St Estephe is a crotchety old man.


Cheers, Roberto