Most western wine drinkers probably wouldn't use terms like dried hawthorn or Chinese sausage to describe the taste of certain wines. But Australian researchers say those terms are a useful part of a world-first project aimed at better-informing Chinese consumers, and increasing Aussie wine exports.

Armando Corsi and Larry Lockshin could probably spend all day talking about and describing the taste of wine. Which is a good thing, because much of their academic focus at the University of South Australia has been on the popular fermented beverage. In particular, solving the problem that certain western flavour descriptions can pose for Chinese consumers.

"The basic issue is that if you have never seen a blueberry in your life, it’s impossible for you to say that the wine taste of a blueberry," Corsi said.

Their research, involving the input of hundreds of consumers across China has resulted in the Chinese Lexicon Project. It matches a list of popular western descriptors with equivalent flavours that Chinese consumers can relate to.

"This wine has a hint of jam, more on the blueberry jams, which we found to be translated to or equivalent I should say to dried Chinese hawthorns," Corsi said.

"The advantage we are giving them is to be able to relate what is in their mouth and their brain with their prior experiences," Professor Larry Lockshin with University of South Australia, said.

For areas where strawberry preserves aren't common, dried Wolfberry can be used, where the term citrus fruit isn't well known, the research suggests replacing it with star fruit and then there’s Chinese sausage.

"When you buy some particularly red wines there is a bacon, what some people describe a sort of vitamin b type of feeling in red wine," Corsi said.

So how important are words when it comes to buying wine? Researchers found that just 5 words on a shelve where bottles like this are being sold increased a person’s chance by about 30% of buying that wine.

So far, the feedback from the project is promising.

"The impact of the card all we know is we keep getting people coming back saying can we have some more, we want more so I think that’s a good result," Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said.

The Australian wine flavours card is being distributed to retailers and exporters. Created by a team of researchers who believe that the right words can go a long way in bridging cultural differences.