The Anthropomorphising of Wine

Increasingly I'm referring to the wines that I try in very human terms and I wonder if this is more or less confusing than recipes of fruit.

Some opinions on the topic of wine-speak would be welcome.

But rather than dwell on this here is a wine that we snuck out of the supermarket feeling very lucky to have nabbed a Te Kairanga Chardonnay 2004 for the same price as the more recent vintage. Supermarkets are good like that, having no knowledge of the aging wine being better..... Still you run the gauntlet of heat and flourescent lighting having got to it before you did.

On opening it all seemed fine throwing up really grilled nuts and savoury stonefruit. But then I started wonedring if that 'savoury' smell was just plain old or nice. So I tried again and got dried apricot and cereal on the nose. The wine was a really deep yellow gold in the glass and the palate still refreshingly rich, the oak not prominant but definitely there in the the texture of the wine and sensation of cloves in the mix.

"Perhaps we should have chosen the younger wine instead of this vintage" is still crossing my mind as I start being overwhelmed by Old Fridge. This aroma seems to be unique to Chardonnay and was first identified in relation to the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay 1999 when we tried that last year. We're presumming that its unique old butter in the fridge-y smell has something to do with the malo falling over, but we're not sure of this. In the Cloudy Bay we decided we liked the smell but I'm still not sure if I find it savoury and interesting or just nasty.

I perservered anyway (well I was drinking the wine not clinically tasting it) and decided the palate was like warm straw and fig. Definitely quite developed but still giving up some fun flavours. Perhaps out of balance with too much age and not enough vivacity.