Vincent wrote:

> As I read descriptions of wines, many flavors are mentioned. Oak is one I
> undestand can come from the barrels in which the wine is aged. But what
> about other things? Do they add these "flavors" to the batch when making the
> wine, or is this just the wine taster's imagination? Examples: Blackberry,
> chocolate, tobacco, leather. Thanks in advance.
>
>

Others have already supplied good answers to your questions. I will
just add that descriptions like this are not limited to wines. For
instance, if I hand you a walnut in its husk that has just fallen from a
tree and ask you what it smells like, you'll probably say "it smells
lemony," because the husk contains several volatile organic compounds
that are also present in lemon rind. As a footnote, if I then present
you with a freshly picked lemon and ask you to compare its smell to the
walnut husk, you can easily tell the difference between "lemon" and
"lemony." All this is just a longwinded way of saying that our
vocabulary for olfaction is woefully crude and all these written
descriptions of tasting are like those blind men describing an elephant
based on feel. ;-)

Mark Lipton