re: Taste Reviews: How do you know what is what?

I consider myself a fairly refined taster, and I can only pick up the big stuff. In beer: citrus, hops, bready/yeast, chocolate, coffee, spices (typically clove), etc. In wine: red fruit (sometimes I can pick out specifics, but other times not), light fruit, oak, earth/leather, level of acidity, vegetation (drink some South African whites, it jumps out at you), sugar, etc. And even then, we're talking usually three and up to four characteristics per beverage. Anyone who claims they can catch more than that is either super-human, lying, or read the bottle