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The weird thing with wines is there's no consensus in blind tastings as to what constitutes a superior wine. Judges' ratings end up all over the map. With teas

by nether 11y ago

The weird thing with wines is there's no consensus in blind tastings as to what constitutes a superior wine. Judges' ratings end up all over the map. With teas in the North American Tea Championship, which employs blind cupping, there is consistent consensus in that certain brands (usually smaller, not Lipton) beat out other brands by large margins by judges who agree. How does wine end up being so impenetrable that connoisseurship confers such inconsistent evaluations? Can we even discern a "deeper understanding" if that means liking/disliking wines at random? I mean what if a movie critic placed 2001: A Space Odyssey in the same league as Backdoor Sluts 9? We'd conclude rightly he's full of shit. I think what we're really running into are the egos of oenophiles.

JesperRavn 11y ago
I'm not very familiar with the literature. I found a Guardian article[0] citing a number of studies that "debunked" wine tasting. But the studies didn't seem conclusive to me. I'm wary of both connoisseurs and academics, as both have psychological and monetary incentives to exaggerate how exact their knowledge is. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tas...
hyperbovine 11y ago
I'm as committed a rationalist as they come, and am the first to call bullshit when it comes to professional bullshit artists wanking over the "personality" of an $80 bottle of wine. Most of my time spent at tasting rooms consists of mentally rolling my eyes at the conversations I'm overhearing. So, as a self-identified wine skeptic who just really happens to like wine, I've gotta admit: there is a huge difference between a good $15-$18 bottle of wine and a good $5-$7 bottle of wine. To me. My spouse and I have even played "guess the bottle" in this price range, and believe me it's not as hard as you'd think. My tastes have, annoyingly, elevated over the years--annoying because $18 nightly bottles are out my budget. It's as though I crossed some sort of wine rubicon. I would agree with the point you are making at a higher price range, but mere mortals really can appreciate spending an extra $10 on a cheap bottle of wine, I claim. I'll say one thing though--the author is spot on about how much cheaper good wine is in Europe. Trying to buy wine at a Carrefour in Valencia last summer, we searched high and low for anything in our "splurge range" (~15 euros) before realizing that maybe the fact that 90% of the shelf was priced at a third that was trying to tell us something.
danieltillett 11y ago
I think the problem with most blind tastings is they are done as part of huge tasting events. Personally if I taste more than 4 or 5 wines at at time my palate gets "tired" and my opinion of the wine becomes very different to what I think of it after tasting it on its own. This is a problem when you go to a wine event and try a whole bunch of different wines and decide to buy a couple of cases of the 9th or 10th wine you tasted. I will no longer buy wine after more than 5 tastings because I don't trust my judgement anymore. I really have no idea how any judge can taste 80 wines in a day and pick anything good.
- headgasket 11y ago
  you need to spit it and eat in between (preferably amidon laden stuff) to keep sharp taste buds connected to a clear mind. Especially if you are going to commit to a couple of cases.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    I have tried this and it helps, but I really don't trust my palate's judgment after tasting too many wines as once. Talking about palate destroying I once bought a wine (mid priced) that had such a terrible taste that I instantly rang to the sink to spit it out. The truly diabolic thing about this wine is it made any wine tasted for hours after this taste terrible as well (I opened 4 different wines I knew well over 3 hours as I could not believe such an effect was possible). No food or any drink could get rid of the effect. I always thought this would be the perfect wine to enter into a tasting competition.

by nether 11y ago

JesperRavn 11y ago

I'm not very familiar with the literature. I found a Guardian article[0] citing a number of studies that "debunked" wine tasting. But the studies didn't seem conclusive to me. I'm wary of both connoisseurs and academics, as both have psychological and monetary incentives to exaggerate how exact their knowledge is. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tas...

hyperbovine 11y ago

I'm as committed a rationalist as they come, and am the first to call bullshit when it comes to professional bullshit artists wanking over the "personality" of an $80 bottle of wine. Most of my time spent at tasting rooms consists of mentally rolling my eyes at the conversations I'm overhearing. So, as a self-identified wine skeptic who just really happens to like wine, I've gotta admit: there is a huge difference between a good $15-$18 bottle of wine and a good $5-$7 bottle of wine. To me. My spouse and I have even played "guess the bottle" in this price range, and believe me it's not as hard as you'd think. My tastes have, annoyingly, elevated over the years--annoying because $18 nightly bottles are out my budget. It's as though I crossed some sort of wine rubicon. I would agree with the point you are making at a higher price range, but mere mortals really can appreciate spending an extra $10 on a cheap bottle of wine, I claim. I'll say one thing though--the author is spot on about how much cheaper good wine is in Europe. Trying to buy wine at a Carrefour in Valencia last summer, we searched high and low for anything in our "splurge range" (~15 euros) before realizing that maybe the fact that 90% of the shelf was priced at a third that was trying to tell us something.

danieltillett 11y ago

I think the problem with most blind tastings is they are done as part of huge tasting events. Personally if I taste more than 4 or 5 wines at at time my palate gets "tired" and my opinion of the wine becomes very different to what I think of it after tasting it on its own. This is a problem when you go to a wine event and try a whole bunch of different wines and decide to buy a couple of cases of the 9th or 10th wine you tasted. I will no longer buy wine after more than 5 tastings because I don't trust my judgement anymore. I really have no idea how any judge can taste 80 wines in a day and pick anything good.

headgasket 11y ago
you need to spit it and eat in between (preferably amidon laden stuff) to keep sharp taste buds connected to a clear mind. Especially if you are going to commit to a couple of cases.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  I have tried this and it helps, but I really don't trust my palate's judgment after tasting too many wines as once. Talking about palate destroying I once bought a wine (mid priced) that had such a terrible taste that I instantly rang to the sink to spit it out. The truly diabolic thing about this wine is it made any wine tasted for hours after this taste terrible as well (I opened 4 different wines I knew well over 3 hours as I could not believe such an effect was possible). No food or any drink could get rid of the effect. I always thought this would be the perfect wine to enter into a tasting competition.