Why do we smell fruit that’s not grapes in our wine?

Wine is designed to be drunk, shared, enjoyed, so the less time we spend squabbling over tasting notes, the better

One of the weirdest things about wine is that we spend a lot of time talking about all the other things it tastes like: leather, tomato leaf, jam … We don’t really do this with anything else. You don’t eat a crisp, say, and go, “Wow, I’m really getting the salt and vinegar in this!” Of course you do: it’s got salt and vinegar on it. But wine isn’t like that. There is no tomato in that glass, just grapes and yeast.

“Summer fruit” is one of the first things fledgling wine enthusiasts can identify in a wine (at least it was for me), but because it’s such a common jump-off point, and because wine writing is prone to rather esoteric descriptors, it’s often seen as a bit basic – it’s Baby’s First Tasting Note by Fisher Price. But there is, as there nearly always is with wine, an opportunity to dig far deeper.

Hannah Crosbie is a wine writer and broadcaster. Her book Corker: A Deeply Unserious Wine Book, is published by Ebury Press at £16.99. To order a copy for £14.95, go to guardianbookshop.com

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