Henry provides a very handy catch-all phrase for when discussing wine with people who know more about it than you do…
From watching Father Ted, we all know that in a religious discussion you can’t go wrong by saying: ‘that would be an ecumenical matter.’ That way you will always sound like you know what you’re talking about. Recently I’ve been drinking wine with people with vastly more experience than me. It’s a nerve-wracking experience when a Master of Wine, leans over and says ‘what do you think?” My mind normally goes blank and all I can think of is ‘very nice.’
Recently, however, I have discovered the wine-tasting equivalent of ‘that would be an ecumenical matter.’ Here it is: ‘it seems a bit a closed to me.’ Doesn’t sound that impressive, does it? All it means is that the wine in question isn’t tasting of very much at the time. This could be because the wine is too young, too cold, isn’t very good, has only just been opened or, and this is the best part, just because your nose isn’t working as well as it should do on that particular day (top wine writer Fiona Beckett writes on this phenomenon here.)
Once you say ‘it’s a bit closed’, people will normally nod and say ‘mmmmm I think you’re right’ or they might disagree but you’ll always sound like you know what you’re talking about.
haha duly noted! I’m off to Burgundy later in the year for a tasting tour so this will come in most handy
My only contribution to the debate is a word I often heard as a child, probably used to describe my limited intellectual capacity: backward (today it has morphed into ‘dyslexic’). I suppose it must describe a wine that is too ‘young’ Henry? Doubtless an ‘old’ wine is called ‘forward’ (a word also used within my earshot, in my later, gobby days as a salesman).