Can you smell "minerals" in wine? Taste them? Drink them? Feel them in your soul?
Over on The Pinot Piles the (self-proclaimed) Prince of Pinot Rusty Gaffney (MD) does a grand service to all those who are a bit fuzzy on what it means to talk about minerality and wine by compiling 24 different definitions. The post entitled "Minerality Lacks an Objective Definition" culls the words from wine reviewers, wine writers, winemakers, PhD scientist-types, sommeliers, and even a sensory chemist. (Curiously, did not see any geologists.)
My favorite has to be Steve Heimoff's, who takes a page out of the infamous "I know it when I see it" definition of pornography by US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. His spin on it? "I can't define minerality, but I know it when I feel it."
How do you definite minerality in wine?
