Colors

I have long since abandoned attempts to define fruit flavors in wine too precisely.  We all have read in the past critics’ very precise articulation of these - moving way past the realm of any fruit I have ever tasted. And if using descriptors I am not familiar with did not make it hard enough to get a sense of what the wine tastes like, these flavors also are very subjective.  One person’s boysenberry is another person’s mulberry.  It may be that I do actually taste the very same flavor as you do but simply have a different name for it, or it may in fact be that I do not taste exactly the same flavor as you do, in which case precise descriptors have no value.  

So I fully support simplifying the words we use to articulate the fruit flavors in wine to establish a baseline that surely can be a meaningful communication of sensation experienced by most. 

For fruits in white wine my headline categories are only these - green, white or yellow.  These will align to grape variety and also to the climate of the year.  Citrus fruits - crisp apple and lime - are likely in the green category. Some stone fruits - peaches for example - I place in the white category, though some orchard fruits in a ripe year may have yellow fruit elements. Pineapple or anything approaching apricot or tropical fruit in flavor are in the yellow fruit category.  If one then wants to be more specific one is free to do so, but the baseline is established.  And I think it is self evident that going on to be more specific may have value but absolutely has increasingly diminishing returns in communicating a flavor sensation the more nuanced my definition gets.

The same approach works for fruit sensations in red wines. The fruit is either “dark” or “black” on the one hand or red on the other.  Some fruits can be red or black - cherries for example.  Many wines have mixed red and darker fruits. Few grape varietals other than Cabernet Sauvignon in my experience have only dark fruits. Darker fruits are also associated with warmer vintages. Having established this baseline one can add nuance by attempting to describe in a more refined way what one is tasting, which may or may not resonate with others.  

Describing fruits flavors by reference to fruits no one has ever tasted seems unhelpful and when written by a critic comes across as pompous and condescending. But some of them just cannot stop themselves. I will spare you the most egregious examples. Suffice to say I normally start laughing and always stop reading.

See also the accompanying post “Lost in Translation”.