On one side of me stood a wagon of freshly baled hay. On the other side of me was a bed of roses. Then I realized what I was smelling. It was a similar scent from both the hay and the flowers — a slightly sweet smell with a touch of earthiness.

No, I wasn’t high on anything. I was in a low energy mode after that long day of stacking bales. However, I learned that day to more fully appreciate all of the aromas wafting around me and not just notice the smelly droppings of our animals they left behind so I had to clean the barn everyday.

In a small way, those long ago experiences prepared me for my foray into the world of wine. At first, I just drank the liquid. Then, I began to taste it and smell it. I noticed there was a book of knowledge and a world of beauty awaiting me, and I jumped into both of them.

I launched into a wine course through the use of many books and online courses. I got to learn from people who lived and breathed wine. And that’s when wine descriptors and I collided.

What the heck does it mean when a wine tastes like leather? Clarification, please! Wine can taste like earth? Help! What does it mean for a wine to taste like cassis, like minerals, is tannic or chewy? A liquid is chewy? I was dumbfounded.

In my world, why not say a wine tastes as refreshing as the scent of falling rain? As crisp as the scent of falling snow? How about the scent of a cedar tree in springtime? And of course, let’s describe the wine as being as flavorful as the aroma of a rose or newly cut alfalfa, OK?

My research astounded me, and the light of a new world came on within me. It’s amazing how discovery leads to enlightenment, isn’t it?

There are five basic flavor characteristics of wine: sweetness, acidity, tannins, alcohol and body. With that knowledge I began to more fully understand wine. However, I still had some questions that needed clarification.

Since I’ve never chewed leather, how can one say a wine has a leathery taste? I’ve never eaten the earth so how do I realize a wine tastes earthy? To my knowledge, I’ve never eaten a mineral soil. Do I need to chew a mouthful of wet sand to experience that mineral taste? And again, how in the world does one chew wine?

The answer, my friend, is in your head.

When you taste something, the taste bud receptors in your mouth are activated, and the taste flows through your cranial nerves to your brain and are stored there. Also, the olfactory nerves receive smells related to what your are seeing and stores that information in your brain. Therefore, once tasted or smelled, that memory is always with you and is activated when you come across the smell or taste in the future.

If you’ve smelled a leather belt or a saddle, you have tasted leather. If you have walked a freshly plowed field or smelled earth after a rain, you’ve tasted the earth. If you have walked upon wet sand, you brain will recognize the scent of minerality. When you took a drink of a luscious fruit juice and wanted to chew it, you’ve tasted a chewy liquid. Do you like currants? If so, you enjoy the taste of cassis.

Ah! Again, the light came on. So that means that from the before mentioned five characteristics of wine, you experience all the tastes, scents and views of wine. Duh! But that’s enough on that subject. Let’s simply enjoy our favorite wine and be happy for your brain storing all you knowledge.

If you wish to taste minerality, try a good dry Riesling. A fine Bordeaux will inform you about cassis. A nice glass of Moscato will satisfy your need for sweetness. A good Malbec or a Sangiovese are wines high in tannins — you’ll note the slight bitterness right away. Full bodied wines include a good cabernet sauvignon. Want to taste a mildly acidic wine? Go with a pinot noir or a sauvignon blanc.

As you can tell, wine tastes can get confusing. If I were to write a book about wine, I’d describe wines as smelling like a newly fallen rain, the smell of a cedar tree, as crisp as snow falling on your tongue, as soft as a rose scent and as comforting as a stack of recently cut alfalfa bales.

Then, I don’t need clarification!

As always, eat and drink in moderation, but laugh with reckless abandon!

Cheers!