Michael Plant wrote:
From another viewpoint, judging (experiencing/knowing) the nuances
of tea requires *no* vocabulary whatsoever; expressing and explaining
these
nuances to others, and comparing one tea to another requires words.

An excellent point, though controversial in the cognitive psych field.
Benjamin Lee Whorf (not to be confused with Security Chief Worf) asserted
that one can't actually have an experience until there exists a category by
which to understand it. Much of the work has been on color terminology, but
no doubt other sensory attributes have been studied in this way. See also
Prof. Noble's "flavor wheel" learning tool for wine analysis and enjoyment:
http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/Acnoble/waw.html.

-DM