Another Tasting Question

[cheeps]

Hi everyone - I have another question concerning the "tastes" of different wines. I have been attending wine tastings weekly for the past 5 or 6 weeks now, plus I've been buying different wines to try. The tastings usually have either 2 whites and 4 reds, or 6 reds. While I can taste some differences between different wines, I don't know what to look for as far as what the "typical" flavor of a certain wine should be. The nights they have all the same wines, but different vintages or different producers I have a much harder time telling the difference between them.

Others at the tastings often comment that a certain wine is typical of a Merlot for example, "you can really taste the Merlot in there" is a comment I often hear. My question is, is there a chart or something that will give you some idea about what different grapes are supposed to taste like? I've read the Wall Street Journal wine book, the Windows on the World one, and the Wine Bible, as well as coming here and visiting other wine sites and I still can't figure it out. They seem to all list the same, general comments about each wine - fruity, jammy, black fruits, plums, cherries, chocolate, smoke, etc., but one time they're talking about a Pinot Noir, another time a Merlot, another time a Cabernet, etc., so which typical flavors are supposed to go with which? I realize they all may have similar tastes in common, but what I want to learn is what makes them different also. Is it just a matter of heaviness or aging rather than specific tastes?

I'm not trying to be an expert or be snobby or anything, but I really would like to at least get to the point where I can take a drink of wine and say to myself, that's a Cabernet, or that's a Pinot Noir, etc. I can tell some differences among white wines alot easier than I can with the reds. I know the taste of a Riesling as opposed to a Sauvignon Blanc, or what a typical Chardonnay tastes like for example, but the reds I'm finding really difficult to set apart from each other. TIA!! [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

Lisa