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How to get the wine you really want

economist.com

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Re: How to get the wine you really want

#31

Post by [deleted] »

tpeo wrote: post #16
lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

I don't quite understand why you winos take your critics so seriously in the first place. Critics are just people with opinions. Sometimes they can provide good justification for why whatever they're reviewing is good or bad. But not one of them is impartial enough that their opinion can be taken at face value, specially if you're not into the stuff they're pushing. This is more obvious with film and videogame. It wo…

[deleted]

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#32

Post by dllthomas »

djrogers wrote: post #15
lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

> We tried the notorious two-buck chuck and thought it was absolutely horrible Then you should try it again! Not only are there many varietals, but they change far more year over year than your traditional wine would as it's basically a blend of whatever was available as overage from many different California wineries. Some years there is a bit of a hidden gem worth spending a few bucks to find.

In my (somewhat dated) experience, grabbing a bottle of Charles Shaw of arbitrary year and varietal was about like grabbing an arbitrary ~$10-$15 bottle of wine. There's some good stuff and some stuff not worth drinking. Not much that's amazing, but surprising for the price point.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#33

Post by tpeo »

wtvanhest wrote: post #6

I have developed a new theory about wine and selecting bottles you/I like. The theory is that pallets for wine develop over time as you drink more, similar to how beer will change. When I was 16, all beer tasted terrible. Then at 19 we 'upgraded' to bud light. Now 15 years later I drink for taste and I like IPAs,or other non standard pilsner. For me, I'm a beginner wine drinker so I do not want the complexity of fanc…

If this whole process is dependent on your tastebuds, it will probably stop after a while.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#34

Post by lisper »

thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #26
lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

i wonder if it's the same for whiskeys or really any alchohol.

Yes, absolutely. Since the infamous cab tasting we've done blind tastings of spirits with similar results. Our favorite vodka, for example, turns out to be Seagrams Extra Smooth, which is about half the price of a "high end" vodka. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way. My favorite scotch turns out to be Lagavulin or Laphroaig -- I really like the smokey flavor of Islay malts -- both of which are rather pricey.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#35

Post by sampo »

lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

> the notorious two-buck chuck

At least this year, the "two-buck chuck" (which, depending on your state, usually costs around $3 now) comes in 7 different varieties: 3 different reds, 3 whites, and 1 rose.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/05/ranking-trade...

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#36

Post by buckbova »

> Traditionalists may be appalled by all this, but they should not be. In Mr Wimalaratne’s mind, the function of the Vinfusion system is in principle little different from the blending of grape varieties that goes on in many vineyards, to produce wines more interesting than those based on a single variety.

After spending a couple weeks in central coast and napa recently, tasting probably ~100 glasses, this kind of sounds insulting. Especially after seeing how much effort goes into cultivating the grapes, crafting these wines, and how they're stored and aged.

I get it though and perhaps this will work for some bar/restaurant. Whatever happened to house red or house white for those who don't care or know?

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#37

Post by bambax »

lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

This was published in 2008:

The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974014354/

It currently can be found for $0.01 (!!) It's a great book.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#38

Post by ogig »

lisper wrote: post #3

Twenty years ago I was a tea-totaller, but there was a group of people I wanted to hang out with who would get together to drink wine so I decided to try to develop a taste for it. I eventually got to be a pretty hard-core wine snob. My wife and I even ran a wine-tasting group for several years. Then one day we decided to start doing blind tastings, and we soon learned that there was very little correlation between w…

My father has been a wine lover for all his, now long, adult life. He has an impressive cellar with some of the best wines of Spain and France. He was also fooled in some blind tastings, like believing a white wine was actually red. But he can also tell the difference between most of his favorite wines, and so do I. So this is not a black or white situation. While some blind taste tests are difficult, others are easy to pass. Depends on what are you prepared to or exposed to. There are plenty of sommelier competitions where they tell apart years and zones very precisely.

On the other hand. I don't know about those wines your are talking about but throwing, for example, a 34 years old wine to compete in a blind test against a cheap modern wine is a bad idea and I might prefer the modern one too in that setting. You need to prepare a good meal or cheese to have that old wine with, a table and good people, time for the wine to breath, good glasses... a pleasure setting. Then, only then the 34 years old wine will reveal why it costs that much.

I still agree with you that there are many good wines on the low price range, and people should drink what it tastes best for them.

The wine blender idea seems terrible to me. I can't believe it will output anything good, but hey, I would try it.

I'm from a wine region in Spain, by the way.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#39

Post by 6stringmerc »

lisper wrote: post #34
thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wonder if it's the same for whiskeys or really any alchohol.

Yes, absolutely. Since the infamous cab tasting we've done blind tastings of spirits with similar results. Our favorite vodka, for example, turns out to be Seagrams Extra Smooth, which is about half the price of a "high end" vodka. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way. My favorite scotch turns out to be Lagavulin or Laphroaig -- I really like the smokey flavor of Islay malts -- both of which are rather…

Very neat to hear, as I've been trying all sorts of different vodkas since one pivotal tasting. So I knew a Frenchman who was in the wine business and thought the market was too saturated, too tough, so he looked into spirits and saw vodka's large (~30%) market share and jumped in to the ultra premium space, the shelf above Grey Goose. His trick was to hire a skilled French distillery to run the vodka through 9 times, effectively cleansing it far beyond what most processing would be like (at the time). I had it over ice and can absolutely recall the pleasant experience drinking that came through. It was like no other vodka I'd had.

In the 10+ years since, however, I can go to my local shop and pick up a made in Texas (!) vodka distilled 6 times for about $20 a liter. Is it as good? No. Is it leaps and bounds better than what I remember from college and in general drinking out and about? Drastically better.

People look at me funny but I claim to be able to taste the copper still pots used in the making of Titos. Can't really over OJ, but if it's stiff enough. Just not my thing!

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#40

Post by bambax »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #30
lisper wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Was it the case that the Silver Oak bottle probably needed some time to open up? This was a long time ago so it's hard to say. But I've had plenty of reds that tasted great straight out of the bottle, so IMHO any wine that needs to "open up" is not as good as one that doesn't. Also, while it is absolutely true that the taste of a wine will change over the course of an evening, it's far from clear how much of this i…

>so IMHO any wine that needs to "open up" is not as good as one that doesn't. I respectfully disagree. Basically I stick to cheap wines (for budget reasons), and my decanter will turn almost any unbearable red into acceptable. A newly opened red sometimes just needs to be smoothed out via air a bit -- at the extreme of things, if you leave a glass out overnight it will be flat (not to mention, the alcohol will have e…

> my decanter

Myhrvold in Modernist Cuisine recommends to use a... blender. It really works ;-)

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