Part Two | Don't Ask What the Wine Tastes Like

Wine Is Meant to Be Discovered—Not Predicted

For as long as we have worked in wine, one question has followed nearly every bottle:

“What are the flavors of this wine?”

It sounds like a reasonable question. Most wine professionals have been trained to answer it immediately.

Strawberries. Green apples. Blackberries. Plums. Violets. Tobacco. Herbs. Vanilla. Minerality.

The person asking listens for something that appeals—or does not appeal—to them.

“I don’t like green apples.”

“I love blackberry.”

“I’m not interested in anything earthy.”

“I only want wines with minerality.”

The wine has not been opened. Nothing has been smelled or tasted. Yet the decision has already been made.

After several decades of tasting wine, we have come to believe that we have been approaching this backward.

The Question That Limits the Experience

Asking, “What are the flavors?” is very different from saying:

“I am looking for a tannic red.”

Tannin is part of a wine’s structure. So are acidity, body, sweetness, alcohol, texture and effervescence.

These characteristics help determine how a wine feels, how it behaves with food and whether it suits the occasion.

A flavor description does something else.

It introduces a suggestion.

Tell someone that a wine tastes like green apples and they begin searching for green apples. If they dislike green apples, they may reject the wine without tasting it. If they love green apples, they may expect a sensation the wine cannot possibly deliver in the same way as biting into the fruit.

A wine that reminds someone of green apple does not literally taste like apple juice. That association may be one small part of a much larger experience involving acidity, texture, temperature, weight, balance and finish.

Someone who dislikes green apples may love the wine.

Someone who loves green apples may not.

But once the words have been spoken, the description becomes part of the tasting.

Would You Ask a Pear to Taste Like a Plum?

Imagine that you have never tasted a pear.

Before trying one, you ask what it tastes like. Someone describes it. You listen carefully and respond:

“If it doesn’t taste like a plum, I don’t want it.”

What have you learned about pears?

Nothing.

You have only decided that the unfamiliar must resemble something you already know before you are willing to experience it.

Wine deserves more than that.

Mourvèdre should not need to taste like Sangiovese. Sangiovese should not need to taste like Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo should not have to reproduce the flavors of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Every grape variety offers a different expression. Every well-made wine can expand your taste range and become a stepping stone toward appreciating another grape, another region and another way of making wine.

The purpose of discovery is not to keep finding new versions of the same familiar flavors.

It is to encounter something you did not know you could enjoy.

The Brachetto That Changed Everything

Decades ago, we poured someone a glass of Brachetto.

At the exact moment she took her first sip, we said:

“Classic Brachetto tastes like a bowl of perfectly ripened strawberries.”

She immediately broke out in hives. Red rashes appeared across her body and even her face.

She was allergic to strawberries.

We cannot prove precisely what caused that physical reaction. What we know is that the wine contained NO bowl of strawberries—and that our description became inseparable from her experience at the exact moment she tasted it.

Without our words, that moment would not have unfolded in the same way.

That experience permanently changed how we presented wine.

We stopped describing the flavors of a wine before pouring it.

Instead, we waited until everyone had finished tasting. Then we asked:

“What did it remind you of?”

That is where the fun of tasting begins.

One person finds strawberries. Another thinks of roses. Someone else remembers a spice cabinet, a forest after rain or a piece of fruit from childhood.

No one has been instructed what to find. No one is searching for the approved answer. The wine has reached each person before the description has.

The experience belongs to the drinker.

Before Tasting, Descriptors Can Close Doors

Flavor descriptions are not useless.

After tasting, they help us communicate. They allow us to compare impressions, develop a vocabulary and remember a wine. They can draw attention to something another person noticed that we overlooked.

After tasting, “This reminds me of…” opens a conversation.

Before tasting, the same words can close the door.

Advance tasting notes can cause people to:

• Reject a wine because they dislike one named fruit
• Buy a wine expecting a literal flavor that never appears
• Search for the writer’s impressions instead of noticing their own
• Assume they failed because they did not detect the “correct” aroma
• Repeat someone else’s descriptors as though they were personal discoveries

At that point, the tasting note is no longer recording an experience.

It is directing one.

Wine Notes Are Published in the Wrong Order

Wine magazines, critics, retailers and producers nearly always publish tasting notes before the wine is tasted.

The reader is told what to expect: Black cherry. Cassis. Graphite. Leather. White flowers. Lemon zest. Crushed stones.

The note is presented as useful buying information. In reality, much of it is the writer’s personal sensory experience delivered prematurely to someone else.

A wine article should absolutely explain where the wine comes from, who made it, how the vineyard was farmed, how the wine was produced and why the writer believes it deserves attention.

It should tell us whether the wine is light-, medium- or full-bodied. It can explain its acidity, tannin, sweetness, texture, vintage, intended style and capacity to age.

The writer should make a quality judgment.

Is the wine balanced? Is it clean? Is it varietally correct? Does it express its place? Was it made with precision? Is it worth purchasing?

That is the writer’s job.

But the list of fruits, flowers, herbs, spices and personal memories should come later.

Taste the wine first.

Then scan the code, open the note and compare.

This Is Not Less Information

Wine Stop will continue to provide extensive online information about every wine we carry:

• Producer
• Origin and appellation
• Grape variety
• Vineyard and soil
• Farming
• Vintage
• Winemaking method
• Alcohol
• Body and structure
• Serving temperature
• Glass recommendation
• Food pairings
• Why we selected it

What we will no longer publish on our product pages is a list of flavors you are expected to find before tasting.

This is not less information.

It is information presented in the right order.

Our tasting notes will be available by email after purchase. Taste the wine first. Form your own impressions. Decide what it reminds you of.

Then read our notes and compare them with yours.

The purpose is not to determine who identified the correct fruit. There is no prize for finding blackberry instead of black cherry.

The purpose is to pay attention.

Quality Must Come First

This approach only works if the retailer accepts responsibility for the quality of the wine.

A customer should never have to wonder whether an unfamiliar aroma comes from the grape and place or from careless winemaking, poor hygiene, instability or a fault.

A flawed wine does not help someone understand a grape variety. It obscures it.

A mediocre wine does not provide a fair introduction to an appellation. It may cause someone to dismiss an entire region based on one poor example.

Wine Stop’s responsibility is to do that work before the bottle reaches the shelf.

We select wines that are clean, balanced, varietally correct, carefully made and true to their intended style. A customer may discover that a particular grape, structure or expression is not a personal favorite.

That is not money wasted.

A good wine you do not personally love can still teach you something valuable about your palate.

You have discovered a preference instead of merely repeating one.

Preference Is Not Quality

At the beginning of our professional life in wine, we had preferences.

Today, we look for good wine.

That does not mean we enjoy every wine equally. It means we can separate our personal likes and dislikes from the quality of what is in the glass.

A delicate, high-acid wine is not inferior because someone prefers a rich, powerful red. A tannic wine is not badly made because someone prefers softness. An earthy wine is not defective because another drinker wants obvious fruit.

Preference asks:

“Do I like this?”

Quality assessment asks:

“What is this wine trying to express, and how successfully has it done so?”

Both questions have a place.

But quality must come first.

Once you know that the wine is good, every tasting becomes useful—even when the wine falls outside your current preferences.

That is how a palate grows.

Taste First. Read Later.

Our new approach is simple:

1. Learn about the wine.
Understand its origin, grape, production, structure, and purpose. Scan the new 2D QR code on the back label—starting with select new arrivals from the 2024 vintage onward—to discover the full story.

2. Taste it without suggested flavors.
Give the wine an opportunity to reach you before someone else’s words do.

3. Notice what it reminds you of.
There are no required fruits, flowers, herbs or spices.

4. Form your own opinion.
Separate whether you personally enjoy it from whether it is well made.

5. Read our tasting notes.
Compare our impressions with yours after the discovery has already taken place.

You may notice something we did not.

We may draw your attention to something you overlooked.

Neither experience cancels the other.

That is where wine becomes a conversation rather than a test.

We Guarantee the Quality. You Discover the Wine.

Part One of our new approach asked:

What drives this wine—and was it crafted with integrity?

Part Two asks:

Will you allow the wine to speak before someone tells you what it is supposed to say?

At Wine Stop, we will provide the place, the people, the farming, the process, the structure and the reason the bottle earned a place on our shelves.

We will guarantee that it is worthy of your attention.

The discovery belongs to you.

The purpose of wine is not to keep tasting what you already know you like. It is to discover how much more you are capable of appreciating.

And who knows?

There may still be a Part Three.

© 2026 Wine Stop. All rights reserved.