Bottled Art: in Vino Veritas?

Plato, in The Laws, touts wine as a "medicine given for the purposes of securing modesty of soul and health and strength of the body."

A harmonious wine is one whose elements coexist in an ideal ratio to each other. The "golden ratio" discusses a mathematical concept whose value is connected to its correspondence with the laws of nature. Interestingly enough, the Mona Lisa was painted following the golden ratio. The golden ratio is understood to be aesthetically pleasing. This concept of perfection can extend to all natural things, such as wine.

When people call wine "flat" they do more than just explain the smooth body of the wine, but dig into the way this ensemble of tastes fails to inspire, fails to be memorable. Just like a flat character, a flat wine serves it purpose be it being just good enough for everyone to like, a mere mark of pleasantry. E.M Forster says that round characters have the "incalculability of life about it." "Round" wine possesses a notable virtue: it's ability to constantly invite adventure; with time they develop and age into a more complex version of their original self.

Uncanny and perhaps feigned descriptions of wine, 3...2...1...

"…this texturally silken, supremely elegant effort transparently and kaleidoscopically combines moss, wet stone, gentian, buddleia, coriander, pepper, piquant yet rich nut oils and a saline clam broth savor that milks the salivary glands. But besides this impressive array of non-fruity components, white peach and lemon deliver abundant primary juiciness and animating tang, rendering the finish as invigorating and refreshing as it is vibrant, mouthwatering and dynamically complex…."

"Deep red currants and ripe cherries, laden with mocha, loamy soil, charred herbs, pencil shavings, roasted hazelnut. Dense like characters that make it perfect for cellaring, however it is drinkable straight away once you expose it to the earth’s atmosphere. This is a delicious Sonoma Cabernet!"

Frei Brothers Redwood Creek Syrah 2002 (California)

"Like a candy cane

That fell into the toilet

Gross, but kinda fun"

These descriptions are sure to turn some heads and even dissuade some from savoring the wine, from emitting mmmms and ohhhhhs.

Linguistics

The greek word for cup is potérion, is metaphorically described by Nerina Bosman as: ‘one’s lot or experience, whether joyous or adverse, divine appointments, whether favorable or unfavorable, are likened to a cup which God presents one to drink: so of prosperity and adversity’. It's apparent that metaphors abound in the language of wine. Does the metaphorical schema of wine descriptions induce consumers to explore the wine deeply?

Adriene Lehrer used her knowledge on Linguistics to examine wine. She found 186 wine descriptors and kept running into a (figurative) wall; Lehrer noticed that one of the dimensions of wine tasting, astringency, was commonly used to describe white wine. This would be ok and proper if white wine created a tactile sensation offered by the tannins in red grape skin. White wines do not have tannins -- unless during the aging process it picks up slight astringency which could happen but is rare. Most of the terms she chose could inconsistently be interpreted. Schoonmaker, as she notes, defines sturdy as less favorable than robust, but more favorable than coarse. While a word is traditionally viewed as an entirely positive characteristic, while heavy can be painfully unappetizing or capacious enough to provide the weight you need in your body to feel alive. Distinctive can be interpreted as an interesting wine, a term of praise but its counterpart interpretation can show it to be a little off, something they can't quite pinpoint with language. But this doesn't mean anything is wrong with the wine, this instead depends on a persons taste receptors and preconceived notions going into the wine tasting.

A study conducted by Food Research International found that during a study that tested consumer reactions to wine descriptions avant and apres wine tasting, discovered the more terms on a wine bottle the higher the emotional reaction to it. Though in a causerie article, Shesgreen pontificates on the lexicon that is used in wine tasting notes, dividing them into three categories: the language of social class (well-bred, royal, etc.), the language of gender (floral, delicate, musk, soft) and the language of fruit and vegetables (cranberries, peaches, squash etc.). According to Silverstein's article on Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life, he found that consumers use these sorts of expressions to make themselves feel like wine savants.

Lehrer, Adrienne. “Talking about Wine.”Language, vol. 51, no. 4, 1975, pp. 901–923.JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/412700. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.

Danner, Lukas, et al. “‘I like the Sound of That!’ Wine Descriptions Influence Consumers’ Expectations, Liking, Emotions and Willingness to Pay for Australian White Wines.”Food Research International, vol. 99, no. Part 1, Sept. 2017, pp. 263–274.EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2017.05.019.

https://thehill.com/capital-living/21088-wine-writing-and-the-curse-of-purple-prose

Hommerberg, Charlotte. “PERSUASIVENESS IN THE DISCOURSE OF WINE.” Linnaeus University Dissertations, LINNAEUS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2011, www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:455455/FULLTEXT01.pdf.