Plummy sweetmeats

Taste and flavours can trigger powerful emotions and memories, as the famous episode of the madeleine from Marcel Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" amply testifies. But taste and smell memory can also be a common cultural link as these plummy sweetmeats will prove. Previously I had blogged about my inclination to describe the taste and smell of wines in things familiar to me, despite the ready available of an internationally recognized glossary to terms. To me, communication is about making the other party understand, and whilst a common glossary is useful for standardization and communication across different localities and even times, the use of whatever does the job, however eclectic, is justifiable so long as the results (understanding) are achieved. This is why I am blogging about these sweetmeats.

This episode actually occurred between 1994 and 1996, when I opened a bottle of middle ranking Bordeaux Cru Classe for some Chinese festival dinner. Unable to finish the bottle, I stuck the cork back in and took it home. Initially the cork just smelt of claret, but the bottle was opened and the wine finished at home, leaving the cork to slowly dry out and the wine on it to oxidize. Hours later the smell changed to smells of jia ying zi (嘉應子), a preserved plum with a prominent note of licorice. Later the small changed to chen pi mui (陳皮梅), which is also a preserved plum but this time flavoured with aged mandarin peel (陳皮), hence more citrussy in flavour. This latter is also notable in the wine as it nears the end of the plateau period of maturity, often when the wine is just about to take a downhill turn. I have somewhat of a penchance for these wines, especially if there is over extraction of harsh tannins, as these will have mellowed by then. But back to the plummy sweetmeats, this is something that Chinese in SE Asia will be familiar with as their childhood snacks, but how do you make the Caucasian understand this? Probably no easier than to talk about gooseberry (the green hairy ones) with the local population.

Another star rating - Decanter

To conclude this series on scores and ratings, we will look at the way Decanter awards its stars. Johnson (2008) wrote that for this system, one star is "poor", two stars "fair", three stars "good", four stars "good to excellent" and five stars mean "outstanding". The star systems are actually based on the 20 point system that I had blogged about previously. Wines scoring 10.5-12.49 points get 1 star, 12.5 - 14.49 points get 2 stars, 14.5-16.49 points = 3 stars, 16.5-18.49 points = 4 stars and >18.5 points get the top 5 stars. For the top 3 categories, the magazine also uses an alternative designation: 3 stars = recommended; 4 stars highly recommended and 5 stars = Decanter Award.

The system is the same whether it is the score of a single invited "expert" or a blind tasting panel whose EU-recognised scores are nevertheless the work of a whole group. Could we call that a star rating by committee?!

 

And for the starry-eyed consumer

Johnson's 4-star system was already in use in my 1985 edition. In those days, it was black on white printing only so instead of coloured stars, the stars got surrounded by a box. Johnson did not evaluate specific wines of a certain winery's output; often he assessed the general quality range of a whole range of wines from the whole operation, or in some cases a whole locality. The system ranges from 1 to 4 stars, with 1 star meaning "plain, everyday quality", 2 stars for "above average", 3 stars for "well known, highly reputed" and the top 4 stars for "grand, prestigious, expensive". Johnson candidly admits (2010) that the last can also infer that it might be pretentious and not worth the money. The stars (1-4 stars inclusive) can also be coloured, which means that they are "usually particularly good value in its (star) class". Thus Chateau Angelus with 4 coloured stars is a good value amongst grand, prestigious wines whilst Chateau Valandraud (****) is merely grand, prestigious and expensive amongst top St Emilion wines. Similarly the Cru Bourgeois Chateau La Tour de Mons is value for money in the above average category (two coloured stars) whilst Chateau Rauzan-Gassies ** (2nd Growth) is in the same above average category for Margaux wines (but not good value for money).

(star ratings from 2011 edition)