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In keeping up with other wine blogs and sites I constantly run into more traditional tasting/review styles and methods. It helps to remind me what a redneck I really am as my vocabulary for aromas, tastes and comments can stay somewhat simple. This is also partially by design in my efforts to make wine tasting, reviews and drinking less snobbish and more accessible to more people.

I came across this blog called vinography this morning and there is an impressive list of wines under $20 that includes both reds and whites. Admittedly, I’m stuck at level 4 and will still only buy Reds unless my wife makes me buy a Pinot Grigio or even the occasional bottle of champagne. (more on different wine levels here)

The other thing I found at vinography.com was a tasting/aroma card to help in describing a wine and how it smells and tastes. Of course, I found some of the words such as “kumquat zest” and “English peas” very stuffed-shirt and obviously words I would never use to describe a wine.

But then something caught my eye…”horse sweat”, “dirty sock”, “wet dog”, “soy sauce” and “Jolly Rancher”. Now I could really use these words to make a wine review stand out…spice it up a little! Not only that but I know what these things smell and taste like. I mean seriously, we all know what a wet dog or dirty sock smells like but how many of us would know kumquat zest if it were lying on a plate right in front of us?

Another interesting thing is that over the weekend I was tasting and writing several reviews with my wife and a friend and our friend asked me how I would describe the bottle of Peachy Canyon Zinfandel and I responded, “it tastes like a raspberry Jolly Rancher”. I thought I had come up with something NEW and unused only to discover this morning that it is commonly used to describe wine tastes.

I’m going to keep the card from vinography and try to use it as I write more reviews here. Just don’t expect to see “peeled willow bark” anywhere in them!