I don’t know that much about wine, but as I have found myself on the Wine Committee this year, I am taking every opportunity to learn. One thing I notice with wine tasting is that there are so many distinct smells and flavours, and that with skill you can discern them and remember them. What does appear, however, to be arbitrary and not really fact-based is the names that people assign to these flavours. Is it really the aroma of “fresh bread”? Really? Probably not, but there is a certain note that people in such circles are trained to associate with “fresh bread”, and a spurious identification becomes a cultural fixture when socially rewarded. In any case, I think of this sort of situation as a kind of symmetry invariance: the names don’t really matter, so much as (1) being able to distinguish one from the other, and (2) having a shared language for describing them. So go ahead and call it “fresh bread”…

I am putting my somewhat ignorant tasting notes below. Feel free to skip past this, I am mainly recording it so that I can remember.

1. Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Spätlese, 2006. This one smelled of peaches; flavour overwhelmed by honey, slight impression of gasoline.
2. Sancerre Blanc, Domaine Noel et Jean-Luc Raimbault, 2024. From the nose of this one I got a bit of rubber, but others did not agree; a bit of smoke too. To my recollection the nose was more mild than the taste, which brought out an unexpected burst of grapefruit. Taste was strikingly different from nose.
3. Bourgogne Blanc, Famille Vincent, 2023. Nose: very mild apples and pears; taste was acidic and dominated by unripe green apples. Some in the room commented on notes of “butter” and “brioche”, but I can’t say that I could figure out what they had in mind.
4. Chablis 1er Cru Vosgros, Famille Gueguen, 2022. I do not have much recorded about this one—a delicate and floral nose, very crisp and dry in its flavour. Some mentioned a “minerality” which I am only just learning to detect.
5. Mercurey Blanc, Château de Chamirey, 2020. Nose: syrup and honey. Others noted “butterscotch”, but I frankly have no idea what they were referring to. Taste: somehow both crisp and rich, with trailing note of salt. This was the most complex white that we had that night, and it was definitely my favourite of the evening. Once the evening was over I had another glass of this one before going home, which I regretted in the morning.
6. Mercurey Rouge, Domaine Larent & Romain Pillot, 2021. Nose: it smelled a bit of raw meat; others commented “cedar” but I can’t claim to have detected this. I did not have much written about the flavour except that there was a bit of spice, and it paired well with salty foods.
7. Rosso di Montalcino, Abbadia Ardenga, 2022. Nose: pomagranite, berries. I do not have much written about the flavour, but I noted that it was perfectly paired with salty olives.
8. Côteaux des Baux, Domaine de Trévallon, 1992. Nose: green olives; I don’t seem to have written anything legible about the taste except that I found it very complex. Would like to try this one again to isolate some of the flavours a bit better.
9. Château d’Armailhac, 2006. A mild and savoury nose leading to a surprisingly harsh flavour. I don’t have much written about this one.
10. Château Malescot St Exupery, 2003. This was the most complex and delicious red that we tasted. Multi-layered nose filled with wild flowers, leading to a bit of spice on the taste.
11. Côte-Rôtie, Domaine Garon, 2005. Nose: creosote and white pepper. Flavour was similar in my opinion to a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
12. Château Filhot, 2005. This one was a Sauterne, but more to my liking than most Sauternes that I have tried. Nose: marmalade and salt; it tasted far sweeter than I had expected from the nose. Ultimately too sweet for me (I tend not to enjoy dessert wines anyway).