WTN: Metawine
Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:14 pm
Just as metatalk is talk about talk; metawine is a whine about wine. I've got a great crisis on hand. Not an existential crisis but perhaps more an epistemological one. I'm afraid I don't know anything about wine. I don't know why a wine is good. I don't know why it's bad. I don't know why I bother writing TNs. I don't know if the TNs are useful to anyone.
Riesling smells more like Riesling than apples and petrol: the words we use are totally arbitrary, in fact, even though they may have some sense on the molecular level. Therefore the long and boring TNs I've before written are of no use. They are just lists of meaningless adjectives and nouns.
So I'm at a great crisis point in my vinous life: shall I stop writing TNs altogether? Shall I try some denser note?
Shall I write a note, like I used to? Ch. d'Angludet 2001 (13%, c.30€) is dark in colour, almost purple. The nose has slight leanings toward the "modern" style, but still has plenty of earth, tobacco and lead mixed with the typical Margaux strawberry aromas and cassis/herbs that. The palate is rather full bodied and extracted, but has delightfully high acidity and savoury notes and fine length. Nice stuff!
Or should I write a note like this: d'Angludet '01: a fine example of the mid-modernist style?
Should I write: Ch. Beychevelle 2001 (13%, c.30€) is delightfully dungy and animally, with vegetal notes to the typical St-Julien cedary cassis. The palate is sweetly fruity, yet very savoury and animally, not as assertive as the d'Angludet but more elegant, more traditional despite the rather high alcohol. The aftertaste isn't as long, but it is more fresh and savoury and all the aromas are more to my liking, so I'd rather drink this.
Or: Ch B '01: yum. Traditional claret if a bit short. Like it alot.
Aaaargh! Why do I actually bother thinking about this stuff instead of putting my feet up and stuffing my mouth with bloody chunks of meat and Gargantuan glugs of wine and enjoying life? (Ok, apart from the obvious answer that an enormous part of the enjoyment of wine is the "intellectual" [if it can be called that in this case] part of thinking about what one puts in the mouth...)
Cheers,
Otto the Disillusioned
Riesling smells more like Riesling than apples and petrol: the words we use are totally arbitrary, in fact, even though they may have some sense on the molecular level. Therefore the long and boring TNs I've before written are of no use. They are just lists of meaningless adjectives and nouns.
So I'm at a great crisis point in my vinous life: shall I stop writing TNs altogether? Shall I try some denser note?
Shall I write a note, like I used to? Ch. d'Angludet 2001 (13%, c.30€) is dark in colour, almost purple. The nose has slight leanings toward the "modern" style, but still has plenty of earth, tobacco and lead mixed with the typical Margaux strawberry aromas and cassis/herbs that. The palate is rather full bodied and extracted, but has delightfully high acidity and savoury notes and fine length. Nice stuff!
Or should I write a note like this: d'Angludet '01: a fine example of the mid-modernist style?
Should I write: Ch. Beychevelle 2001 (13%, c.30€) is delightfully dungy and animally, with vegetal notes to the typical St-Julien cedary cassis. The palate is sweetly fruity, yet very savoury and animally, not as assertive as the d'Angludet but more elegant, more traditional despite the rather high alcohol. The aftertaste isn't as long, but it is more fresh and savoury and all the aromas are more to my liking, so I'd rather drink this.
Or: Ch B '01: yum. Traditional claret if a bit short. Like it alot.
Aaaargh! Why do I actually bother thinking about this stuff instead of putting my feet up and stuffing my mouth with bloody chunks of meat and Gargantuan glugs of wine and enjoying life? (Ok, apart from the obvious answer that an enormous part of the enjoyment of wine is the "intellectual" [if it can be called that in this case] part of thinking about what one puts in the mouth...)
Cheers,
Otto the Disillusioned