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I am(maybe was Haven't worked on it in a bit) working a wine-tasting app, because paper and pencil can get a bit tedious to look up previous tastes. I use a 3

by qdog 13y ago

I am(maybe was Haven't worked on it in a bit) working a wine-tasting app, because paper and pencil can get a bit tedious to look up previous tastes. I use a 3 star method, 1 star= Don't like, 2 star = Will drink/buy if nothing else available, 3 = Will buy given the opportunity. Generally all the 'dark cherry'/'tobacco'/'plum' etc. flavors are kind of meaningless to me. I rarely detect anything I think I can pick out, I just tend to decide if I like the taste or not. Usually the nicer the wine smells, the better it tastes, sometimes its 'fruit forward' (sweet), sometimes it's 'tannic' (bitter acid) and sometimes it just burns (alcohol content). What I believe is bullshit is the people trying to describe flavors in a wine and extrapolate quality from that. If you like a wine, buy it, if you don't, don't. I enjoy some cheaper wines (Chariot Red at Trader Joe's is a fine value for about $5 imho), but my own tasting notes do indicate some $60 bottles of Pinot Noir taste way better to me than average. However, there are also some $60 and $150 bottles I don't think are very good. As for wines tasting alike, if you can't taste a difference between grape varieties, I guess stick to Charles Shaw and enjoy. I wouldn't be surprised that the experts have a hard time with multiple tastings, as the wine taste changes with exposure to oxygen, on top of the tiring palate.

h4pless 13y ago
Your app idea is a method I have used in the past. I started a note in Evernote and when I tried a new bottle of wine, I would take a picture of the bottle, write a comment of it's quality [Avoid, Okay, Pretty Good, Fantastic], write down it's basic characteristics, and then write what food I thought it would pair well with. One thing I have noticed about wine though is that even with a bottle of wine that I really like, the next bottle I get of the same vintage might be terrible. What the article does not mention is how important environmental conditions are for storing wine and how a case of wine can sometimes get ruined in shipping, sitting on a store shelf or not allowed to breathe properly. Because of the amount of variation in wine quality I have adopted the habit of just buying $6 - $15 bottles and when I find something I like, I stick with it until I stop liking it. If it's a special occasion, I will put my faith in a nicer brand that I have tried and liked before that I believe will pair well with whatever food is being served but for the most part, buying expensive wines is too much of a gamble for me. Especially considering that my wine palate is not much more complex than your 3-star system.

by qdog 13y ago

h4pless 13y ago

Your app idea is a method I have used in the past. I started a note in Evernote and when I tried a new bottle of wine, I would take a picture of the bottle, write a comment of it's quality [Avoid, Okay, Pretty Good, Fantastic], write down it's basic characteristics, and then write what food I thought it would pair well with. One thing I have noticed about wine though is that even with a bottle of wine that I really like, the next bottle I get of the same vintage might be terrible. What the article does not mention is how important environmental conditions are for storing wine and how a case of wine can sometimes get ruined in shipping, sitting on a store shelf or not allowed to breathe properly. Because of the amount of variation in wine quality I have adopted the habit of just buying $6 - $15 bottles and when I find something I like, I stick with it until I stop liking it. If it's a special occasion, I will put my faith in a nicer brand that I have tried and liked before that I believe will pair well with whatever food is being served but for the most part, buying expensive wines is too much of a gamble for me. Especially considering that my wine palate is not much more complex than your 3-star system.