Page 77 - Grapevine JanFeb 2022

International News
How’s Your Mouth Feel?
By: Tod Stewart
T he latest vintage of Domaine de la Bon
Bouche sets the lips tingling as if tickled
by the eyelashes of an angel as it flits on
gossamer caresses, coming to alight gently on the
tongue. Resting its silky wings, it envelopes the
palate in a cocoon of velvety, glycerol-induced
unctuousness. Wrapped in a creamy, viscous robe,
it perches supplely on the papillae, mustering the
steely resolve required to resume an ultimately sui-
cidal (though heart-arrestingly warm and generous) posity you’ll notice something interesting. Not
slink down…down...down. Without gritty tannin,
without harsh heat, without even a suggestion of
chalkiness, it bids, adieu mon amour to my spent
taste muscle and departs in a gush of crisp, crunchy
yet at once satiny tactile replay.”
Sick of this yet?
Me, too. So let’s get on with it.
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Obviously Domaine de la Bon Bouche is not a real
wine, winery, or marketing gimmick (okay, hold
that last possibility). Nor is the “review” the prod-
uct of a real “wine writer” (though considering
some of the reviews I actually have had the displea-
sure of reading, it’s not much of a stretch to think it
could be).
However, if you study that exercise in vinopom-
once…once…were aromas and flavours ever men-
tioned. Coincidence? I think not (mostly because I
wrote it that way on purpose).
The point, insofar as there is one, is that there’s a
dimension to wine (and spirits and beer and all the
other goodies that slide over your palate) that goes
beyond smell and taste. It is the middle ground
between light and shadow, between science and
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