I'm fleshing out some ideas based around the senses other than taste : hearing, and touch being the two that are most obviously new to wine tasting.

The thinking behind this is that different people use different senses ot make sense of their world. For some people talking about smell or taste just wouldn't convey much, but explain to them using words that are linked to touch or sound and they will get it.
I use this approach a lot in my champagne tastings and for some people it seems to work.
Might be worth keeping in touch about this.
Jiles

One of the guests at a dinner in Champagne was an eminent Japanese sommelier.Towards the end of the meal we were served Dom Pérignon Oenothèque 1973 . The Japanese guest was asked to comment.

He said something like this:
" I woke with the sun streaming through the window and I jumped out of bed, full of energy and life, opened the window and let in the glorious warm sunshine.
I hurriedly put on my clothes and rushed outside. I ran through a meadow full of multi-coloured wild flowers whose powerful perfumes rose up all around me in a huge cloud of scent as I ran through the grass.

I came to a lake whose still surface reflected the bright blue of the sky above. I stripped off my clothes and plunged into the pure water. I felt alive and envigorated as the chill water tingled over my skin. I swam to the far side , climbed out and lay basking on the grassy bank relaxing in the warm sun – entirely at peace."

What about that for a new way to speak of wine?

I know a lady who makes her own liqueurs : infusions of gin, vodka etc with herbs, fruit and other goodies – whether you like these or not is beside the point, what's interesting is the way she describes the drinks – she draws them!
She has an artistic background – trained as an artist I believe

Each taste suggests a sensation and shape to her: spikey, smooth, flowing, jagged, round etc etc and she then draws a corresponding sketch of each liqueur.

Once again the point is not whether or not you feel that you would understand this approach, I feel that the point is that SOME PEOPLE DO.

We don't all intepret the world in the same way, so many different ways of describing wine are needed whereas a lot of wine tasting notes are similar, time, after time, after time.

I hope this has been of interest and if it has stimulated some new thoughts do take a look at my second post – I think it’s even more intriguing. There wasn't room to put it here.

What I'm coming around to is pretty basic: audience and context trump personal preference. If we're tasting a dozen bottles of Michigan Pinot Grigio for a pretty serious readership that includes many of the state's winemakers, the only thing that makes sense to me is the traditional Parker / Spectator reviewing style, scoring and wording, which offer the granularity to differentiate one fairly similar wine from the next in the reader's mind.

But for the general readership column, which usually reviews a smaller number and broader assortment, I'll rate on the five-star scale and head toward a writeup of something like "light, bright and lemony, with just a hint of sweetness — a great summer patio sipper next to some guac and chips."

I find that when I do that I get comments like "I like it". The negatives really stand out – "I dong like it because… it's too dry, it's too bitter, it's too acidic…"

I never get "hints of" or "notes of". Fruity happens some time. Occasionally that may be expanded to berries – but only occasionally.

I think the trick here is lots of conversation and observation. After all, the goal of a wine review is to help promote wine appreciation to the widest audience possible. So it makes sense that we should write or describe in terms that they will understand and relate too…

I would say that tasting notes can be useful and people who write them should continue to do so. There's a personal opinion on every tasting note. What they shouldn't be is the only resource when choosing a wine.

The Web provides a much more interesting way of adding context and experience (recipes, video, photos, etc) when talking about a wine and this can be of much more value to a regular wine lover than any rating or tasting note.

We do this every year in Philly – it's called the Mummers parade!

We do this every year in Philly – it's called the Mummers parade!

I think food matching is also a piece of what I am looking for here.

I think a bit of focus on selling the tasters experience with the wine along with simpler explanations of what you taste and smell, suggestions for where and when to enjoy the wine and a possible pairing could go a long way. I wish I had an example, but alas my wine journal is at home…

I think the general wine drinking population, those not overly hung up on the numbers, would find it refreshing to know "how" to enjoy any particular bottle of wine. We've all had that great Rose that makes you want to kick back on the patio, sip wine and relax versus a Rose that just doesn't shine till you throw in some food (substitute almost any other varietal for the Rose).

@Andrew: I don't think we are looking for change for it's own sake. I think the medium of blogs and podcasts is different; more immediate and fluid than the print world.