Against winespeak

“The taste is ripe blackberries, sun and smoke.” What is it? Maybe the firefighters’ run-off water after the recent fires that burned some blackberry vines. Naah! It’s another of S. Irene Virbila’s ridiculous descriptions of a bottle of wine (“Wine of the Week: 2002 Coto de Hayas Garnacha Centenaria,” Dec. 17). What does the sun taste like?

I hope she read David Shaw’s review of Leonard S. Bernstein’s “The Official Guide to Wine Snobbery” on the same page (“The Lighter Side of Wine”). In it, the author pokes fun at the language of wine tasting. A combination of reinwardtii flowers, the moon and ripe kiwi (the fruit or a smelly animal)? Now, that’s a wine I’d pay big bucks for!

A. Robert Young

San Pedro