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Neil's avatar

Love the “trace back” idea: it’s always intriguing to see how our descriptors of wine have changed. Not that long ago, you’d barely hear the term “minerality”; now, you can’t escape it. And previously so much more metaphorical; now salad-dressing descriptors the norm

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Kara Daly's avatar

Interesting! I'm not sure I've heard any salad-dressing descriptors yet. Care to elaborate? How do you feel about using them?

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Neil's avatar

I use salad-dressing to describe the modern tasting notes that are a laundry-list of perceived aromas or flavours. Sort of an “ingredients” list. :-). (With some aiming for the most obscure, the better.)

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Kara Daly's avatar

ahhhh ok so thyme, lemon, etc. Got it!

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Caroline Lamb's avatar

Brava! In my house the term “dusty” has become “superior dustiness”, the phrase my husband fondly uses to describe his favorite wines lol. Usually Sangiovese.

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Kara Daly's avatar

That's amazing...superior dustiness! Almost needs that caveat for non-wine trade people, because when they read "dusty" their minds immediately go to an unswept house. Ha!

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jade's avatar

Great read! Whenever I use dusty, I’m usually describing a red wine with pyrazines. Not sure why, but something about the green bell pepper note along with tannins comes across as ‘dusty’ to me.

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Kara Daly's avatar

That's so interesting! I find the bell pepper note really wild for me and I smell it as minerality sometimes too. Thank you for sharing that!

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Andrew Wessels's avatar

Love this, especially seeing you look to sources outside of wine to better understand the term. That LaCerva book sounds great, how did you find it?

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Kara Daly's avatar

Its actually an essay, and it is great! I found it in the rabbit hole of dust etymology. https://openhumanitiespress.org/feedback/newecologies/dust/

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Andrew Wessels's avatar

Wow it's so poetic! Just a beautiful essay

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Kara Daly's avatar

I know! It is incredibly poetic.

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