by Hoke » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:55 pm
What Oliver said.
I pick up cranberry in some wines. Mostly Pinot Noir. Also pomegranate.
I think with most of us, our taste impressions are dependent upon the taste repertoire with which we are familiar and comfortable.
The wider our tastes range, and the more adventurous and experienced we are with tastes, the better our repertoire.
Until very recently in this country, cranberry for most people meant that canned jelly stuff you had once a year with turkey and stuffing. Then it meant cranberry juice cocktail. Now it means a lot more than that, as we're seeing more cranberry tastes more often, so we can more readily bring it up on our palate memory chart.
I would say that (and I'm speaking waaaaay generally here) cranberry-ish smells and flavors are more likely in tart and acid-driven wines, much less likely in heavy, full-bodied, and tannic structured wines, or heavily oaky wines. But part of that is likely because cranberry itself is light-bodied, tart and acid driven, so it figures.
