Wine talkin' isn't quite as enjoyable as wine quaffin', but it's always intriguing in the right company. I especially enjoy hearing enthusiasts' ideas about how to talk about wine.

"The Wine Bible" author Karen MacNeil told me a couple of years ago that she was trying to come up with a way of describing, or even measuring, a wine's flavors in terms of waves, sound or otherwise. I've also been intrigued by attempts to use celebrities' names to describe wines, from John Wayne to Hillary Clinton to Secretariat (love that Brett!).

I was thinking about this yesterday, while transcribing some notes from a wonderful midday tasting at the Bouchard Pere & Fils winery in a castle in Beaune. There were three rouges made from the same grape (pinot noir) in the same region (Burgundy) and the same vintage (2007) that were vastly different in terms of, for lack of a better word, gender.

The Gevrey Chambertin was very masculine, almost brutish, while the Beaune de Chateau Rouge Premier Cru was delicate and quite feminine and the Volnay Caillerets Ancienne Cuvee Carnot Premier Cru's elegant fruit and firm structure made it a little of both, androgynous if you will.

I'm not sure that there's any other grape that can provide such a wide range of manliness/womanliness. Manly viognier, anyone? Effeminate syrah?

And that's one of the facets that helps pinot noir rank among most any oenophile's favorite varietals. It can be as delicate and demure as Cate Blanchett, or as virile and brutish as Russell Crowe. It also can offer up a bit of both sides, that ineffable Grace Kelly-esque combination of elegant purity and racy sensuality.

And that's worth talkin' about any ol' day.