How to frame likes/dislikes

Hi,

It's my birthday shortly and I've mentioned to those that have asked that I'd be interested in getting the odd bottle of decent quality wine as a present. What I'd like to be able to do is offer people some minimal guidelines as to the sort of thing I might like so they can go to a wine merchant and get something unusual. The trouble is, how do I frame this in terms which are brief and easy to remember yet not so wide-ranging as to be meaningless.

It's particularly a problem with red - I'm fond of medium-full bodied wine that combines good fruit with earthier, more robust flavours, but I suspect that this is a pretty common request that could describe a wide variety of wine. My favoured grapes are Tempranillo and Merlot - I find that Temp blends often produce that flavour balance that I like.

I suppose white is easier as I'm more on the extreme end - I favour very dry whites with citrus flavours - Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are favoured varieties so long as they're not oaked - I can't stand oak in a white wine.

So - any suggestions as to how to refine/precis this for others to act on? Might be a useful exercise for the next time I turn up at a wine merchanst as well

It's particularly a problem with red - I'm fond of medium-full bodied wine that combines good fruit with earthier, more robust flavours, but I suspect that this is a pretty common request that could describe a wide variety of wine. My favoured grapes are Tempranillo and Merlot - I find that Temp blends often produce that flavour balance that I like.

Since you were open to interesting gifts why not just tell your friends and family this, perhaps mentioning a few specific wines/producers that you really enjoy. Then if they go to any reputable shop the staff should be able to take those pieces of information and select something nice.

If the people potentially buying wine for you know so little of your tastes that they need to be told what sort of wine to get, particularly as you are so particular about your red wine, frankly I'd not bother trying. Get them to give you wine tokens, e.g. the ones issued by the Bank of England, instead.