Sorry para should have read - see caps.

But some of the things we smell and taste in wine can be pinned down in the
bouquet or taste as derived from actual components or winemaking processes.-
eg, alcohol, rasinins (dried sweet grapes) in a fortified muscat, smoky
savour (charred barrels), wood, vanilla (from oak vanillin), butteriness -
from diacetyl via malolactic fermentation, citrus - citric acid?, acids,
sugars, yeast/products ie baked bread, METHOXYPYRAZINES (sauvignon blanc
characteristic), VA
(acetic acid), acetaldehyde (sherry like oxidation) sulphur, TCA
(corkiness), malic (ie "apple") acid etc. etc.

"Martin Field" > wrote in message
news
>
> "Joseph Coulter" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:32:48 +1000, "Martin Field"
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"DaleW" > wrote in message
...
>>>On Nov 19, 7:21 am, "JT" > wrote:
>>>> "Ed Rasimus" > wrote in message
>>>>
>>>> ...
>>>>
>>
>>
>>>Dale - I'm with you. 1. No you're not deluding yourself - I had a Thai
>>>curry recently and as well as overall impressions, at the same and at
>>>different times I could distinctly detect a multiplicity of aromas and
>>>tastes: acidity, tartness, sweetness, lemon grass, ginger, basil,
>>>shallot,
>>>garlic, coconut, chili, fresh turmeric, tomato etc. (I gather that what
>>>most
>>>of us call taste is actual
>>>
>>>One only has to read of the great "noses" in the perfume industry (Google
>>>"Luca Turin: for some lucid and brilliant writing on this) to know that
>>>they
>>>can detect myriad natural and synthetic aromas in perfume blends. (More
>>>than
>>>four anyway.)
>>>
>>>However, I am not suggesting here that listing a whack of detected aromas
>>>is
>>>helpful to readers or listeners, I also tend to keep my descriptors in a
>>>note to just a few.
>>>
>>>Cheers!
>>>
>>>Martin
>> I think that there is a difference in edetecting the aroma of basil
>> for instance in Thai food and an esoteric descriptor such as leather
>> in a wine. In the first case you are detecting what you identify, in
>> the other you are creating a simile to help describe a wine. One
>> descriptor is "real" the other is "synthetic".
>> Joseph Coulter
>> Joseph Coulter Cruises and Vacations
>> www.josephcoulter.com
>
> But some of the things we smell and taste in wine can be pinned down in
> the bouquet or taste as derived from actual components or winemaking
> processes.- eg, alcohol, rasinins (dried sweet grapes) in a fortified
> muscat, smoky savour (charred barrels), wood, vanilla (from oak vanillin),
> butteriness - from diacetyl via malolactic fermentation, citrus - citric
> acid?, acids, sugars, yeast/products ie baked bread, (sauvignon blanc
> characteristic), VA (acetic acid), acetaldehyde (sherry like oxidation)
> sulphur, TCA (corkiness), malic (ie "apple") acid etc. etc.
>
> I suggest that your esoteric descriptions are not synthetic as such but
> rather attempts by tasters to use associative, analogous terms to best
> describe the complex aromas and flavours they find in a wine.
>
> For instance, if someone says they find grean pea or green pepper aspects
> in a sauvignon blanc is this synthetic? (they all contain
> methoxypyrazines). Same applies if someone calls a wooded chardonnay soft
> and buttery (buttery from from malolactic fermentation) or like buttered
> popcorn. Cinema popcorn is often flavoured with artificial butter
> compounds ie with the diacetyl mentioned above.
>
> The point I was trying to make with the Thai food example is that I
> believe that people can taste and describe quite a number of components in
> wine. Whether these descriptions are actually identifiable, derived from
> actual processes or components or associative is beside the point in my
> opinion. The descriptors are merely an attempt to communicate the taster's
> impressions.
>
> Some of these associations are helpful to others - some not.
>
> Mind you, when I hear wine descriptors like feminine, alluring, dark and
> mysterious etc. I want to puke...
>
> Cheers!
>
> Martin
>