English and Spanish descriptors in wine tasting terminology

Wine tasting notes constitute a specialized genre in the field of Oenology, with their own rhetoric and language. However, the language of wine tasting notes is by no means as specialized as that of most other specialized genres. Indeed, while there are dozens of terms used to describe and evaluate wines, there are only a limited number of words that are used exclusively or primarily for describing taste. In this study, we will first examine how wine literature attempts to analyze the descriptors used in wine tasting notes. We will then study a number of common wine descriptors in English and Spanish in the context of the nouns that they collocate with, in order to determine how specific or general these descriptors are in their use and meaning. On the basis of their collocability, we will categorize the descriptors into three categories and then analyze the meaning components of those descriptors that fall into the most general category.