Wanky wine terms must die!


Wine has a unique way of bringing people together and creating lasting memories, but it can also be intimidating, especially when it comes to deciphering the often cryptic language used to describe the different types of wines. The wine world is full of insider terms that can make understanding the nuances of a bottle of wine feel like an impossible task. 

It’s time for this trend to be put aside. They don’t actually add anything to the conversation about wine, and they only serve to alienate those who don’t understand them.

In this episode with Judith Lewis, let’s have a good laugh at all these wanky wine terms while decoding their meaning and understanding why they should be avoided. In doing so, we’ll make the process of understanding and appreciating wine easier and more accessible for everyone. Join us as we debunk the jargon and discuss why it’s important for everyone to enjoy wine without the stresses of learning complicated wine terms.

What you will learn from this episode:

  • Find out what some of these wanky wine terms are to get a glimpse of the insider’s wine lingo.
  • Learn about what these terms mean so you avoid using them so as not to intimidate people about wine.
  • Discover how using ridiculous wine terms only excludes instead of includes most people.
  • Learn how to be an effective wine communicator that people can relate to so they understand what they’re consuming and that helps boost sales.

Judith Lewis is a renowned international speaker, writer, trainer, blogger and digital media consultant specializing in applying a strategic understanding of digital technologies to help businesses innovate and optimize their effectiveness within the new, networked communications environment. 

Deploying her skills across a number of sectors, Judith learned about wine-making quite late and is working on the digitization of the wine sector. 

Judith is also an accomplished international chocolate judge and wine judge. She blogs about chocolate.

Connect with Judith Lewis:

Topics Covered:

01:55 – Using words that people can relate to instead of alienating them

04:13 – Talking about ridiculous wine terms and what they  mean

05:56 – What makes smell one of the most important things in wine tasting

08:45 – Hear these funny phrases about wine

11:23 – Another amusing term for you to know

12:55 – What negative connotations using these exclusive wine terms bring

15:03 – More wine descriptors that exclude more than include people

16:11 – A wine term that is just as confusing as the meaning they attached to it

19:31 – Weird names that they would associate with grandmother’s closet

20:50 – Using these words that are completely out of meaning

22:31 – The confusion in assigning a ‘flavour’ word to a ‘sensation’ word

23:37 – Helping in terms of consumer education for a large number of wine drinkers with terms they can relate to and not just for a select few

25:27 – Marketing and communicating wine that makes it more relatable and accessible for most people

Quotes from Judith Lewis:

“Some wanky wine terms are really exclusionary, they’re used deliberately to exclude people and make them feel like they don’t understand.”

“Closed means you really can’t smell much.”

“I, as a voluptuous woman, a full-bodied woman would then assume that it was a full-bodied wine. But again, what, how do we define a full-bodied wine?”

“In the descriptors, when you’re going through how sweet something is, luscious is defined as the top-end of sweetness. But that’s only because that’s what WSET has said.”

“I just wanna lick a bit of your skirt, lady. Do you mind? Somebody said it was voluptuous, so I wanna taste voluptuous.”

“As a child, I actually did lick rocks.”

“Minerality: a lack of being beaten over the side of the head with a piece of fruit wrapped around a lovely small flower.”

“It’s one of those words that people throw around when they’re really not sure what they’re tasting.”

“The only thing a wine education gives you is the ability to choose for a group of people, something that is in the middle of everybody’s likes.”

“I think people get mixed up because they think everything about wine is taste.”

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