THE USUAL WAY TO LEARN about wine, championed by various “educators” and “communicators”, is to focus on grape varieties and how they taste. You will learn how cabernet sauvignon smells of blackcurrants, sauvignon blanc is redolent of green peppers and gooseberries, and gewürztraminer smells of lychees. Though I don’t think I have ever actually tasted a lychee.
In this grape-led way of ordering wine, varieties are at an advantage from a marketing point of view if they are easy to pronounce — which partly
