Everyone learns at their own pace, and inevitably, everyone shocks the hell out of us with the specificity and acuteness of their observations.

.

One of the core reasons for the existence of Élevage is to educate the public about wine. We do this directly through our Cellar Management program, Tastings and Wine Dinners, and indirectly by developing Wine Program Design for restaurants and retail shops, through which we offer staff education. The goal is to give people in the trade a solid foundation from which they can not only advance their own palates, but also give acurate and meaningful advice to their clients.

.

People come to us for training at various levels of expertise. It is the people who are most willing to speak up who find a “voice” for their palate sooner than others. People will often use experiences from their lives to describe the wine they are tasting, which can be both illuminating and, frankly, utterly mystifying!

.

We recently did a training session on the Loire Valley of France.  One taster’s impressions of a Chenin Blanc from Vouvray included a description of the lipstick of a woman he dated in the ’70’s (!). Another taster said it reminded her of the smell of her cat coming in from the rain. The other tasters snickered a little at both comments, and while we let the lipstick reference slip away, both Chris and I pounced on the “wet cat”; the thing is, classic Chenin Blanc often does have a musty aroma that many tasters describe as “wet wool”. While Chenin can be very floral, which may have been what the taster was associating with lipstick, it typically doesn’t have the pungent chemical aroma of lipstick.

.

Does that necessarily invalidate lipstick as a tasting descriptor? What if that 1970’s lipstick smelled just like fresh spring flowers? While that may well be the case, it won’t be everyone’s impression of what lipstick smells (or tastes) like, especially considering the array of “flavors” with which lipsticks are marketed. On the other hand, wet cats typically come in one aroma: musty fur.

.

Winespeak should never come off as fancy or snobby, but should give an impression of the wine’s character that most everyone can understand. We don’t necessarily push tasters to describe a Chenin Blanc as having aromas “reminsiscent of my cat coming in from the rain” to their clients, but it would be bad business to sell a musty, mineral-driven Chenin to someone who is looking for a wine that is all about the fruit. Similarly, it is a great feeling to be able to acurately describe Loire Valley Chenin Blanc to a guest that had visited the Loire Valley on a trip to France and had this marvelous white that they, understandably, can’t quite put a finger on, though maybe they can describe the damp cellar that they were in when they tasted it.

.

We try to give people in the trade a means of communicating with the wine drinking world. It’s an elemental part of selling people exactly what they are looking for.