Is That an "Honest" Wine You're Drinking?

Filed in archive Vocabluary on February 4, 2009

The art of describing a wine's taste is just that: art.

Oh sure, there are some words we use that have fairly well understood, concrete meanings. And, yes, large groups of us tend to agree that a particular Shiraz is fruity, or that some Chardonnay has nuances of coconut or fig. Is it sweet or dry, tart or bitter? Usually there's a consensus.

Then there are more abstract terms. Alder over at Vinography talked in some depth earlier this week about using the word honest to describe a wine.

I'm not deliberately setting up a dichotomy here between the "real" and the "fake" or the "natural" and the "industrial." Dividing the wine world into such stark factions is not only unproductive, it's stupid. We live in a complex world, and anyone who proclaims such black and white divisions exist has some sort of agenda.

Instead I'd like to suggest that the honest wines distinguish themselves from the pack in the same way that truly kind and thoughtful people might stand out against the background of all the different kinds of folks that you meet in the course of a day...

Alder goes on to spend the next eight or nine paragraphs trying to explain what he means by the word. It's an interesting read.

Maybe next week I'll see if I can figure out what people mean when they say a wine is pretentious...


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 1860674