Volcanic Wine Awards | The Jancis Robinson Story

The small world of wine words

Wednesday 10 February 2021
Chinese wine wheel

Richard examines whether wine-tasting vocabulary can break through language barriers.

The best superhero power isn’t flying, even when the world’s borders aren’t closed. Nor is it X-ray vision, ever since the internet revealed to us far more than anyone could possibly stomach. And it most certainly isn’t blind tasting, which is little more than a party trick.

No, the best superhuman power is omnilingualism. Fluency in all languages must surely be the most potent skill – not just in vocabulary and grammar, but also in accent and colloquialisms. Think of how much more can be achieved when you can speak...

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