David Womersley Waugh on Wine by Auberon Waugh
What should a wine writer attempt to do? Give envy-inducing evocations of their own oenophilic experiences? Provide technical information about how particular wines are made, either in the vineyard or the cellar? More basically, supply tips about what to pick up from the off-licence or supermarket on the way home? Auberon Waugh thought, at once more loftily and serviceably, that the wine critic should sacrifice his health for the benefit of his fellow human beings, tasting everything that comes his way and advising on what to try and what to shun: Others may have a more exalted view of the critic’s role — to interpret a wine, book or play, provide a political or socio-economic explanation for it all. But I feel our job is that of the taster at a medieval banquet. If we turn green and choke on our vomit, it is a sign that the revellers should skip that course.
The purpose of wine-writing decided, immediately a further problem arises. What makes good wine-writing? It is a question worth asking because, as Waugh confesses in the opening essay of this entertaining collection of his own contributions to the form, language is peculiarly ill-adapted to the business of conveying anything of the pleasures and sensations bestowed by wine.
As he remarks, “The number of words which can usefully be used to describe or assess wine is