Basic Explanation of Tastes and Flavours of Wine

I tend to look for wine reviews in newspapers, magazines, on television or online and it has baffled me on a number of occasions about tasting terms the "wine experts" use.  Some examples; For a Heathcote Shiraz..."belly of the hare", a Coonawarra Cabernet..."dirty filter pads" and for a Pinot Noir..."a peacock's tail of flavours".  I can picture how the flavours of a good Pinot can open up (to use another wine term, sorry) but, I have never tasted the belly of a hare and I definitely do not want to taste a dirty filter pad.  These sort of descriptions are, admittedly, not the norm.  There are literally hundreds of words used but the most common include ones like cherry, blackberry, blueberry and plum for reds and grassy, gooseberry, citrus and fruit salad for whites.  You are probably wondering how a grape can seem to have the flavours and/or aromas of other fruits.  Basically (and boy do I mean basically) certain grape varieties have the same flavour and/or aroma compounds as other fruits and, as such, can taste and smell similar.  The Olfactory receptors on the tongue send a signal to the brain which says (work with me here please people), "hello hello, I've tasted that before when you ate (for example) plums".  Regardless of the scientific jargon, many things can alter our taste buds.  There are some fruits we may have never eaten so would not recognise it's flavour in a wine and let's not forget food brings out flavours, and certain textures, in wine.  As I have said before, wine is, and always will be, personal.  'Til next time and remember to live simply, laugh often, wine alot.

The Great Freight Debate Continues

Very recently, in the local newspaper, there was a full page advertisment of a large liquor chain, selling Beer Wine and Spirits, offering 20% off all wine if you purchase 6 bottles or more.  The same company is offering 30% off in their mainland outlets with the same conditions.  I decided to contact the company and, after leaving two messages, somebody eventually returned my call.  The answer to my question of why the difference in the discount was, words to the effect of, "we maintain an everyday low price Australia wide in our outlets but due to shipping costs to Tasmania, we can not offer the same level of discount as our mainland states.  Our store operators would not be able to carry the cost".  When I mentioned that Tassie wines would have little or no freight costs he maintained his stance on the "...everyday low price...".  Most of the places I source my bargain wines from are on the mainland.  The most I pay for postage is $10 a carton & if I buy multiple cases (for friends of course) they offer free postage.  Some places will give free postage if you spend a certain amount of money with them and, for people like me (again for friends), that is often quite easy to do.  I wonder how many large companies use the shipping cost as an excuse to take advantage of a certain demographic and sometimes I am sure we don't even know we are being ripped off in this kind of circumstance.  'Til next time and remember to live simply, laugh often, wine alot.