• Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław •

People essentially perceive the outside world with their five senses. Sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste are the tools of our personal, subjective interpretation of the world. In order to enter into a dialogue with others, we endeavour to verbalise our own sensory perceptions. In most Western cultures, the verbalisation of taste and smell constitutes a specific challenge compared to the verbalisation of other sensory impressions. This becomes particularly evident when verbalising the sensations of taste and smell that occur when tasting wine. A phenomenon as complex in terms of flavour and aroma as wine is difficult to put into words. One of the main functions of the product texts that form the research material for this article is to familiarise the target audience with the aromatic and gustatory characteristics of the wine, through the use of a series of defining terms that are often used in a metaphorical sense. The aim of this article is to present descriptions of wine flavour and aroma in product-accompanying advertising texts. The lack of a specific, diversified vocabulary for the accurate description of flavour and aroma means that the gustatory and olfactory qualities of wine are often symbolically compensated for by cognitive mechanisms. Based on the analysis of product descriptions in wine catalogues, it is presented how the taste and smell sensations of wine can be conveyed despite the lack of adequate taste and aroma lexis.