‘Bold’. ‘Elegant’. ‘Introverted’? How words describing wine get lost in translation

By Allison Creed, Lecturer and Curriculum Designer, Cognitive Linguistics, The University of Melbourne

I recently watched a participant at a wine tasting freeze when asked for their opinion. “It’s … nice?” they ventured, clearly wanting to say more but lacking the specific vocabulary to do so.

The sommelier quickly intervened, noting the wine was “quite elegant, with beautiful structure.” The participant simply nodded, and the conversation ended.

Wine is a multi-billion-dollar export commodity, yet industry “winespeak” can actually stop people feeling they can join in conversations about wine. And often words…

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