January 31 2008
Is it me, or does Gary Vaynerchuk at Winelibrary TV taste an inordinate amount of pickle juice, beets and other “green” vegetal characteristics in the wines he tastes? I do not find these in many wines that I taste and they do not appear in many (any?) wine descriptor guides.
Curious. However, researchers indicate from the world of food that descriptors that are even more complex might be on the way.
First, Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20 has a fascinating post (found here) on the different types of sets or words that wine writers use—words that frequently confound the perfectly normal, yet eventually make their way into our lexicon.
She says in part:
It turns out that wine writers use three kinds of confusing words: jargon (technical terms about wine), dialects (terminology common to a group of wine writers), and idiolects (terms that a single wine writer comes up with; if sufficiently popular, idiolects can be shared and become dialects).
Dr. Debs goes on to define the three areas with some background, including:
Wine jargon can run from winemaking terms like malolactic fermentation to the technical words associated with tasting (such as attack, mid-palate, and finish) and with taste (extracted).
Wine dialects include terms like those on the tasting menu in the picture: lush, fruity, soft tannins, juicy. These are short-hand terms that wine writers use that they think have a consistent meaning, but which are sufficiently subjective that no one knows for sure.
As for idiolect (please note: no “t” after idio), one of the great recent examples can be found in the tasting notes of Gary Vaynerchuk on WLTV. His unique tasting vocabulary started off as an idiolect …
Again, it is a fascinating post and goes a long way in nicely explaining not just the differences in wine phraseology, but also the buckets into which each fall.
So, yes, it does seem as if Gary’s idiolect with “pickle juice” is well on its way to moving from being an idiolect to a dialect.
Reading Dr. Debs post nicely coincides with an article I read in an industry journal (Sante) about descriptive menu labels influencing customer behavior in restaurants. While the article isn’t online, its content is derived from a book called, “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” by Brian Wansink, Ph.D. and at his website -with plenty of research material available- www.mindlesseating.org
The crux of the Wansink article is about the use of descriptive language on menus and the impact on the perception of the food by the customer. Therefore, instead of having some wacky “Italian quesadilla” at TGI Friday’s, you have instead the, “Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadilla.”
Research indicates that more descriptive language increased sales 27 percent over plain-labeled menu items and that more description added other associational benefits like diners thinking the food was more appealing, tastier and the restaurant as being trendier and more contemporary.
According to the research and the author,
Descriptive labeling allows consumers to concentrate more on the feelings and taste aspects of the products instead of focusing only on the functional or utilitarian properties. For instance, when asked to comment on their entrée or dessert, people who were given a descriptively labeled product directed 84.5 percent of their comments to factors related to the taste and sensory nature of the product. In contrast, those who ate the less descriptively labeled products focused only 42.6 percent on these sensory aspects and reserved their remaining comments (…like filling) for the more utilitarian or functional characteristics of the foods.
In the article and on his web site, Wansink goes on to bracketize categories that can generate descriptive or suggestive language.
They include:
Geographic: Labels that mentally tie or associate with a geographic area)
Nostalgic: Using past time periods as a trigger for happy memories of family, tradition, and nationalism
Sensory: These are descriptors that describe the product in endowed and specific terms
Band: This is related to cross-promotion and not as readily found in the wine industry and example would be Kahlua flavored Seattle’s Best coffee, for example.
Taken together, Dr. Deb’s post and the Mindless Eating site and research offer some interesting food for thought (bad pun, I know) for the wine industry – both for wineries and consumers.
Simply, while even hardcore enthusiasts may find wine language frequently forbidding and enthusiasts find it impenetrable, the evolutionary answer may be that wine tasting notes will continue to get even more colorful and full of life, as opposed to less so.
Your “A classic California Zin--fruit forward and brambly with notes of stewed plums” may soon turn into the even more flowery and prosaic note like, “A beautiful example of Dry Creek Valley, in Sonoma, CA, Zinfandel. Its brambly notes that are redolent of earthy blackberries also call to mind stewed plums, dense and rich … “
Is this good for wine consumers? I am not so sure that it is but I do know that it sure does not do anything to clarify the notion that tasting notes are already too complex to penetrate for many. It would seem that wine knowledge is going to have to increase, not decrease. Taken together, though, Dr. Debs astute analysis of our language patterns juxtaposed against independent research that can be translated from the food world point to this increasing complexity as an eventuality.
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January 14 2008
My introduction to the Pomegranate was, no kidding, in 7th grade social studies. Our teacher brought in a pomegranate as a part of lesson on fruits that settlers of the Americas enjoyed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In the mid-80’s it was an uncommon fruit not frequently found at the local supermarket and a bit of a treat to see this “living history” up close.
We passed the pomegranate fruit around the class as each student carefully extracted a couple of the seeds to taste and ponder. It was an exotic treat (and a staining treat as well; a couple of kid’s shirts did not come out of the fruit interaction unscathed--despite the teachers’ warnings). Assuredly, this pomegranate eating was much more exciting then the firefighters delivering apples in October. Early palate training, it was.
In the intervening years between then and, say, 2004 I didn’t hear much about the pomegranate. It remained a seldom seen fruit, a relic in my childhood memory bank. Then, it seems, marketing took over as pomegranate juice and pomegranate flavored everything exploded onto the market.
Nowadays the Pomegranate and its various derivations from juice to jam are commonplace. And, as a result, based on the palate training of enjoying this once seldom seen and now oft eaten fruit, you now see pomegranate show up in tasting notes more often. It seems only natural—the hundreds of flavor nuances you can find in various grape varietals will lend themselves to flavor matching once our palates are adept at picking them up.
The Litchi (or lychee as it is also known) shows up occasionally, as well. This exotic Asian fruit is increasingly seen fresh and canned in grocer’s international foods aisle.
While shopping this past weekend and subsequently doing some studying in the Macmillan Visual Food Encyclopedia (a must for any home kitchen worth its sea salt) I think we’re on the cusp of another wave of fruits that will find their way into our kitchens and subsequently our wine tasting lexicon.
If I’m buying starfruit and horned melons in Indianapolis, IN then I know these exotic fruits are “Playing Peoria.”
Herewith, a list of five fruits to get acquainted with as you’ll want to familiarize yourself with them and add them to your flavor memory:
Mangosteen: a Southeast Asian fruit with a unique taste, with subtleness to its strawberry-ish and peachy cream flavor
Starfruit: A Latin American fruit, and grown elsewhere, as well. It’s acidic with a sweet-tart flavor that has the consistency of an apple with pineapple and kiwi notes with less overall sweetness
Horned melon: Native to New Zealand these peculiar looking fruits taste like cucumber tinged with pleasant lemon.
Uniq fruit: Native to Jamaica, you may have seen this in your citrus section as the “ugli” fruit. Naturally, I think the marketers are working on changing that to “uniq.” This is a juicy citrus fruit with a nicely sweet citrus taste that reminds you of a mandarin orange with a little more zing.
Cherimoya: Another Latin American fruit, the Cherimoya has a firm texture allowing it to be eaten like an apple, with a flavor profile that is much softer—nicely tropical, but not definable.
Of course, there are other fruits that are gaining in exposure--fruits that we’re familiar with by name, if not by actual taste—gooseberry, guava, kumquats, quince and jujube, amongst others. Check these out, too.
Life is an experiment. Next time you’re in the produce aisle pick up a couple of these exotic fruits if for no other reason than palate training. And, look at my tasting notes in the future—I’m dying to work in a Cherimoya reference.
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December 26 2007
Those fascinated with wine and the wine industry have much family fodder to regularly consider. If it’s not the Mondavi’s it’s the Firestone’s. Every turn of the calendar year leads to speculation anew about some family foible or fable coming to a close.
General Hospital has nothing on the wine industry.
And, wineries aren’t alone in these “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives” moments.
It turns out wine retailers have them, as well.
I read Inc. magazine as a subscriber so it took me by some surprise when I leafed through the magazine this past summer and saw a lengthy article on iconic Chicagoland wine retailer, Sam’s Wine & Spirits.
I thought then that it might make for an interesting blog post, but without a counterpoint to bounce it off of it ended up in the blog post graveyard --a bit of news without anything else to add to it.
It wasn’t a happy story, either, not when the elasticity of family relations had crossed over from tenuous to potential temerity.
It seems that ideological differences on growth and how to best go about it were getting in the way between the two sons of Fred, himself the 2nd generation to run the former bar that was now a significant fine wine retailer.
Darryl Rosen, (the eldest son of Fred) and younger brother Brian, it seems, were at odds over some ownership language and voting rights in the nuts and bolts of the business.
Likely in a fit of pique, Darryl told Brian, according to Inc. magazine, that he could buy him out.
And, Brian did. Darryl has exited the business, Brian retains 20% ownership and a private equity firm owns the other 80%
It seems that Darryl has taken the lessons learned from running Sam’s and re-christened himself as a customer service guru—author/speaker/consultant complete with book that can be found at his site, found here.
Darryl interviewed with Megan Haverkorn from Wine & Spirits Daily last week in an interesting, if somewhat obtuse interview. There’s even a couple of references to online wine sales that will leave you scratching your head. As referenced above, this is the counterpoint I was looking for.
The interview with Darryl was interesting for its relative lack of interest, frankly. Consider that the news around the guy is that he sold his business to his brother in what some would consider an acrimonious circumstance, yet not a single question was lobbed about the buyout of one of America’s largest wine stores. Secondarily, the guy, Darryl, just wrote a book on customer service called, ‘Surviving the Middle Miles’ and there’s not even an attempt at a decent plug, just an end of story sign-off mention. I mean the title itself, a reference to long distance running, would begat a question, or a glancing reference, you would think.
Peculiar.
Read the Inc. magazine article (found here) and then go to the W & Spirits Daily interviews here and here and do your own deductions but, I would be surprised if Sam’s Wine and Spirits wasn’t an equally rich story of intrigue, money, family jealousy and desire for progress versus status quo as the Mondavi’s, without the romance of Napa Valley to cast it as a fable and a book to chronicle it all.
Postscript: Wine Spectator’s trade magazine, Market Watch, reports in a story that is not online that Brian Rosen, now CEO and President of Sam’s, has just opened a 16,000 square foot store with plans for up to five more stores in 2008, bringing the total number of stores up from three to nine.
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December 3 2007
Eschewing the wine blogosphere and mainstream media for once, Gary Vaynerchuk is featured today on an Internet marketing site found at www.strategicprofits.com.
The blog post featuring Gary can be found here.
The owner of the site, Rich Schefren, makes a living as a business coach to Internet marketers.
This isn’t a knock on coaches in the Internet marketing space, but most of these guys are shylocks of the first order and will take any opportunity to tout the mysterious “secrets” of success that they have worked a lifetime to accumulate. I’ve read a couple of the “free” reports and there are some nuggets to glean, but, generally speaking, these are like the guy that has a “sure-fire” college football gambling pick—the ‘stone cold lock’ and then he calls you three times a day for the next month wanting you to sign up for his service. These guys want you sign up for their webinars for $100 or $150 bucks to learn more of the secrets, the bait being free whitepapers and workbooks and such. I think the only secret is they make a pretty good living off of people that have enough wherewithal to dip a toe in the water, but not enough to jump into the deep end of the pool. Or, to use the gambling analogy—guys that have enough money to gamble, but not enough to lose …
I wish I listened to the audio because it seems like Rich is trying to keep up, get a word in and do his own bit of chest puffing. He admitted on page 12 of the transcript that Gary probably knew more about social media. Ironically, did I mention, the interviewer, Rich, makes a living as an Internet Marketer/Guru?
Interesting, indeed.
Check it out. Vaynerchuk is in full-on “talkamileaminutemodewithabunchofunecdotesandanologies” and there’s some good background detail on the origination and growth of Winelibrary.com.
Gary plays it straight and plays it genuine, but for my money I think he should not be so quick to do the James Lipton “Inside the Actors Studio” bit so soon. There’s still a lot to conquer for Vaynerchuk and keeping his craft sacrosanct will help keep the allure for those who have yet to discover the “brand.” Even in a transparent 360 degree online world, there’s something to be said for the band not playing the #1 hit during the encore--leaving the audience wanting something more.
If you’re interested in the audio it can be found here.
Continued Godspeed to Gary. His explosion onto the scene in ’07 is the best and most interesting thing to happen in the wine blogosphere—he is a natural foil for all things that are interesting about our online wine world and I continue to root for his worldwide domination.
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November 29 2007
I just finished reading Wine & Philosophy, a gem of a book edited by Fritz Alloff, featuring essays by a number of notable wine writers and experts like Matt Kramer, Jamie Goode, George Taber and others.
I received this as a review copy from the editor, Fritz. He and I don’t know each other and I would generally defer any comment whatsoever if I didn’t think it was meritorious. That said, if you’re interested in the contemplative side of wine, the brainy aspect that comes out philosophically in the midst of your third glass, the socially lubricated part of the wine experience that makes the grape such an interesting subject, than Wine & Philosophy is the book for you.
Amidst skillfully cultivated, cross-referenced and footnoted essays covering a range of topics from the culture of wine, wine criticism, wine and metaphysical notions and wine and politics, is a highly readable book that creates conversational fodder for a month of Sundays, or a year of late night weekly tastings, whichever is greater.
I’m no simpleton, though, by my own estimation I am pretty normal, so, perhaps not coincidentally, one of the more interesting aspects of the book to me was an anecdote within an essay called “Who Cares If You Like It, This is a Good Wine Regardless,” by George Gale.
Gale is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and tells a story of “slinging” in the mid-70’s in Kansas City.
Now, if you’re anything like me and wish wistfully that you had been a part of a generation that seems, in minds eye, much cooler or romantic than your own (the Beat Generation in the 50s for me) than you’ll understand that Gales’ description of wine, Kansas City and mid-70’s is very, very cool.
He says in part:
In the mid-1970s, my home of Kansas City, Missouri was one of the hottest new wine centers in the North America: the market was opening up, wild growth in sales and consumption was observed, and an enormous buzz around wine and everything connected with wine swept the city. At the center of this excitement was a core of a dozen or so young wholesalers, retailers, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and one winegrower-winemaker who was also the wine columnist for the Kansas City Star. Needless to say, with such energy and passion available, the group soon developed a competitive sport focused on wine: slinging. Just as in its namesake –gunslinging- the new sport involved challenge and duel, but with bottles of wine as the weapons rather than guns. The sport worked like this.
Your doorbell would ring, and there would be two or three of the group, with or more bottles of wine hidden away in brown paper bags. Consider yourself slung” someone would say, and the group would barge into the room. Wine glasses were fetched, and the slingee would then be faced by “The Three Questions”: what is the grape, appellation, and vintage? After a suitable amount of tasting and sloshing around in the mouth, the slingee would have to stand and deliver, making a stab at answering the question.
Gale’s story continues and he makes a larger point about empirical analysis in a subjective subject, but to me, the point he really, really made is about shared community. And, in our own little epicenter within the context of wine bloggers, we can do an increasingly better job of working together to “sling” given this great communication vehicle called the Internet. And, because, frankly, others will look back at this period of time and those involved with their own little bit of envy.
Wine & Philosophy invites a lot of questions and provides a lot of answers for those looking for deductions. Pick it up online at amazon.com--it will be money well spent for any discriminating wine lover.
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