Even in ancient times, wine tasters had a language for describing wine quality. Around one hundred terms have been found in Greek literature. However, there was no generally accepted vocabulary; instead, an assessment was left to the imagination or judgement of the individual. It was not until the beginning of the 18th century that a culture in this regard slowly began to develop in wine community. The French chemist Jean-Antoine Claude Chaptal (1756-1832) already used more than 60 expressions in his work "Art de faire, de gouverner, et de perfectionner les vins", published in 1807. In his studies on the history of Médoc wines, Professor René Pijassou (1922-2007) from the University of Bordeaux collected all the expressions used at the time by brokers and vineyard owners (e.g. inexpressive, flat, full-bodied, full-bodied, aftertaste, robust, round, velvety) and had already established tasting rules.
For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.
Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien