(TheDrinksBusiness) - New research by Laithwaite’s has picked out the words and phrases that consumers find the least and most useful when describing wine.

When polled, 55% of the 1,000 volunteers (who were all “reasonably well-informed” about wine) said that many descriptions did not help them understand the taste.

Forty-three tasting notes from leading wine brands and critics were presented to the test group, which in turn was asked to pick the terms it found the least helpful.“Firm skeleton”, with 37%, was judged the most useless, “old bones” (35%) wasn’t far behind and nor was “nervy” (31%).Other less-than-helpful terms included: “wet stone” (27%); “tongue spanking” (21%); “haunting” (21%); “spring hedgerows” (19% and “brooding” (18%) as well as “vegetal”, “leathery”, “chunky” and the word of the moment, “minerality”.

The use of the latter word has lead to increasing discussion of its use, as the drinks business has previously reported.