And I know that I'm occasionally guilty of using jargon in this column that some of you don't understand. I've explained most of these terms at one time or another, but I can't keep repeating myself every week. The first is to drink wine exactly like you drink beer or soda pop. These are the terms that wine writers and other professionals use to try to communicate taste, which is one of the truly hardest things to do. If you don't think so, try describing the taste of an avocado to someone who has never had one.
Tropical fruit includes pineapple, melon and banana, all of which show up frequently in white wines.
If you've never smelled or tasted any of these off characters, you're lucky, and you haven't consumed very much wine. The opposite side has a really good general guide on how to match up foods and wines that are likely to taste the best together. What they're saying is drink big powerful wines with intensely flavored foods, and drink delicate wines with foods with subtle flavors. There's also a guide to proper serving temperatures for various wine types, and a short but very thorough glossary of those terms that sometimes confuse you. Lees - Sediment of yeast, grape components, etc.