I'll start off by saying that qualitatively wines can be equal, yet taste differently. This is what constitutes style. Yet what is it? And how does it appear in wine writing?

Wine writing involves a lexicon of descriptors, such as those on Ann Noble's wine flavors wheel. Many of them are recurring, such as blackberry, cherry, plum, cassis, brambles, tobacco, cedar, roses, violets, lavender, incense, licorice, chocolate, coffee, minerals, leather, cream, caramel, sweet, dry, alcohol, and so one. Here are how the descriptors emerge.

The first is primary, the aromatics. That is, what is smelled, which is sensed by the olfactory nerves which are linked directly to the brain which holds a memory bank of experienced aromas, the fruits, the scents, the perfumes.

Then comes the secondary phase, the palate which senses the fruits, and the organic compounds that are described as licorice, chocolate, coffee and minerals and so on. This is mostly textural, what the tongue and mouth feels.

After that, is the tertiary, what comes on the back of the tongue, sensations of sweet, dry, saline, viscous, tannic, along with the aromas that come up through the cavity behind the tongue and back to the olfactory nerves.

All of this is what adds up to what the flavors of a wine are. Wines that are simple will be mostly primary flavors, with fewer secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors. More complex wines will have more descriptors. This is why the most complex wines I review generally will have more descriptors. A 19.5 or 20 points out of 20 will have more going on than wines scoring 18, 18.5 or 19 points.

Then, how are wines that are qualitatively equal different from each other? Some can be "bold," which is to say that the secondary components, the palate flavors are more dominant. Others can be more "aromatic," with dominant primary aromatics. Others may be more "elegant," that is, nuanced with tertiary elements such as texture, integrated oak and smooth tannins. All this is on a continuum, which is to say that a wine will have components that are primary, secondary and tertiary. In my wine writing, I endeavor to convey how this plays out in the overall impressions. This is how the U.C. Davis 20 point system is designed to evaluate wines qualitatively, by assigning points for the various elements of a wine. For a further discussion of the system, see my Blog posting of 25 January 2012 (to find it, scroll down to the bottom of the page and then back through previous pages).

The subjective evaluation of wines depends on personal stylistic preferences, whether one likes "bold" or "aromatic" or "elegant" wines more than others. So, read the descriptions to make your own determinations. Reviews are only guidlines, not simply numerical "ratings."