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> chilled red and white wines down to the same temperature What temperature did you serve them at? I'm not going to argue that your results aren't what they ar

> chilled red and white wines down to the same temperature What temperature did you serve them at? I'm not going to argue that your results aren't what they are, but white wines and red wines are served at different temperatures for a reason. Temperature definitely has a noticeable effect on taste, with colder things having more muted flavours than warmer things (this is why soda tastes acceptable when it's over ice, and unbearably sweet when it's warm) so really what you're establishing here isn't "white wines and red wines taste the same", but "when you serve a red wine at a non-recommended temperature, it doesn't taste like what people expect it to taste like" which seems reasonable but also not interesting. It would be more interesting if, in addition to serving chilled white wine alongside chilled red wine and daring people to tell the different, you also served recommended red-wine-temp red wine with recommended-red-wine-temp white wine, and see if you can tell the difference.

nrclark 8y ago
A valid consideration, and one that I didn't test. I'll have to try it out on people some time!
poulsbohemian 8y ago
Something else I would have never believed had I not experienced it -- the shape of the glass really does matter as well. Not perhaps significantly so that you need to have different glasses, but definitely noticeable when given the opportunity to test.
- CocaKoala 8y ago
  Yep. It makes sense when you think about it; it's pretty intuitive that the shape of the glass would affect how you smell the wine as you drink, and nobody's really going to contest that scent is a large component in flavour. Like you've observed, it's not such a large deal that if somebody poured red wine in a white glass and handed it to me, I'd wave off (let alone burgundy in a pinot noir glass or something). But it turns out that stuff like that makes a difference if you look for it.

nrclark 8y ago

A valid consideration, and one that I didn't test. I'll have to try it out on people some time!

poulsbohemian 8y ago

Something else I would have never believed had I not experienced it -- the shape of the glass really does matter as well. Not perhaps significantly so that you need to have different glasses, but definitely noticeable when given the opportunity to test.

CocaKoala 8y ago
Yep. It makes sense when you think about it; it's pretty intuitive that the shape of the glass would affect how you smell the wine as you drink, and nobody's really going to contest that scent is a large component in flavour. Like you've observed, it's not such a large deal that if somebody poured red wine in a white glass and handed it to me, I'd wave off (let alone burgundy in a pinot noir glass or something). But it turns out that stuff like that makes a difference if you look for it.