Like most other useful activities, wine has its own special vocabulary. They say that 'close is only good in hand grenades and horseshoes'. Close is as good as it gets with wine words. When someone says a certain wine tastes or smells of something else, it obviously can't do that exactly. All it can be is itself.
Words do fail absolutely.
The best to hope for is to describe our way around such an intangible subject. Wine words simply suggest that certain parts of a wine can have some similarities to or remind us of something else. This can be useful, trust me on this. Besides, attempting to creep up on wine like this is a damned sight better than saying nothing at all. And a lot more fun.