How to get the wine you really want • Hacker News Board

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#151

Post by xorcist » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:42 AM UTC

hexane360 wrote: post #64

ogig wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't fully buy this. I expect my chosen jazz critic to be knowledgeable, like, a lot. Same for food and wine. I want to read the words of someone who has eaten on more places, more foods and more flavors than me, not less. Your friend might be too humble.

But even then, they're not any better at 'tasting well'. You don't have to care about the fancy properties of the wine, just whether it tastes good to you.

But who thinks they are better at tasting? If they had extra special tastebuds, that would only make their recommendations less relevant to the rest of us. I mean a dog might find a piece of music lovely for its ultrasonic components, but I won't.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#152

Post by jeremysmyth » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 10:21 AM UTC

ythl wrote: post #109

munificent wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about having to use drugs to acquire a taste?

Are there any acquired tastes that don't require some form of drug usage (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, etc.)?

Macedonian trad/jazz fusion music. Dadaist art. Sauna (the Finnish way).

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#153

Post by thyrsus » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 6:15 PM UTC

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 problem with wine is that I know what I like when I taste it, but as best I can tell, there is no language with which to express that, after "red". There's "headache flavor", which never shows up in cheap wine: it doesn't taste bad, but it means I'm going to get a headache if I drink more that 4oz of a wine tasting like that. No bottle has ever been labeled with "headache flavor". I ask wine people, and they hand wave something about tanins, but I've tasted high tanin and low tanin wine, and the flavor is completely orthogonal.

Given the lack of information, I never bet a lot on a bottle. My favorite wine ever was a Consumato Nero D'Avolo from 2010 (I paid $22), but other years of that label have been wildly inconsistent, and now I can't find it any more. It was very close in flavor to a wine I had at a wine bar that they called a "California Malbec" which I've never found again, and another at a restaurant where -

WTF restaurants! Whenever stumble on a wine I especially like at a restaurant, I go to Google and find out the label doesn't exist! It's some fictional house label!

Not my very favorite, but something I liked with meals was Corbet Canyon Malbec, so of course they don't make it any more.

Even if I had the time and money to make thorough study of this, I'd have spent a year being drunk and discovering perhaps a dozen excellent bottles - which would henceforth never be made again. Screw that. Inexpensive box wine for me.

Or, just as often, an IPA. The beer people know how to produce consistent quality and have categories where the product consistently meets expectation, while still having entertaining variations between brewers.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#154

Post by nkurz » Sun, Nov 06, 2016, 6:24 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #144

jandrewrogers wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vodka is almost universally manufactured from the same high-grade industrial ethanol, which is essentially pure. However, you are correct that some of them taste different! You might be disappointed, though, to discover that these flavors are often introduced as a small quantity of concentrates added to industrial ethanol during the bottling process. Not every brand has a subtle character modifier added to it but man…

Wow. Not that I doubt you, but is there any way to corroborate this story?

I'd also be interested to know about the flavoring used. It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste". This technicality of course doesn't mean that it's not done exactly as Andrew describes.

Here's a couple background articles on the bottler's role, without specific reference to flavorings:

http://adiforums.com/index.php?/topic/452-whiskey-bottling-v...

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18360315

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#155

Post by lisper » Sun, Nov 06, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

nkurz wrote: post #154

lisper wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Not that I doubt you, but is there any way to corroborate this story?

I'd also be interested to know about the flavoring used. It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste". This technicality of course doesn't mean that it's not done exactly as Andrew describes. Here's a couple background articles on the bottler's role, without specific reference to flavorings: http://adiforums.com/index.php…

> It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste".

That seems improbable because flavored vodkas are common.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#156

Post by maxerickson » Sun, Nov 06, 2016, 6:42 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #155

nkurz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also be interested to know about the flavoring used. It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste". This technicality of course doesn't mean that it's not done exactly as Andrew describes. Here's a couple background articles on the bottler's role, without specific reference to flavorings: http://adiforums.com/index.php…

> It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste". That seems improbable because flavored vodkas are common.

That rule is specific to products labeled "Vodka".

Flavored vodka has to include the flavor on the label. Pages 2 and 11:

https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam/chapter4.pdf

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#157

Post by lisper » Sun, Nov 06, 2016, 6:56 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #156

lisper wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like this would run afoul of the US labeling laws for vodka, which require it to be "without distinctive character, aroma, or taste". That seems improbable because flavored vodkas are common.

That rule is specific to products labeled "Vodka". Flavored vodka has to include the flavor on the label. Pages 2 and 11: https://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam/chapter4.pdf

Ah. Well, what can I say? I can easily tell the difference between different vodkas in blind tastings, though I can't necessarily tell you which is which. But my wife can consistently pick her favorite vodka out of a blind lineup.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#158

Post by tomcam » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 8:01 AM UTC

xorgar831 wrote: post #105

tomcam wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait… It isn't about the taste alone?

No! That's sort of where this snobbishness comes from, the real wine culture isn't snobby... maybe even a mediocre wine turns to a great one in the right company. At least that's been my experience.

Nondrinker so I didn't consider that. Thanks

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#159

Post by NoGravitas » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 12:35 PM UTC

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.

So, responding a little late here, but if you like single malt Scotch whisky, take a look at John, Mark, and Robbo's. What they've done is basically what the wine blender in the article is doing, but targeting specific flavours. They use a blend of cheaper single malts to match the flavours of specific expensive single malts.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#160

Post by eric_h » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 3:59 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #84

eric_h wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I find that whiskey, beer, tequila and mescal are the only alcohol products where price really does line up with quality.

I don't. There is a whole booming industry right now in relabelling mass produced spirits and marking them up. Now older whiskey for instance is going to always cost more than younger, and its usually going to be better, but you can get similarly aged whiskeys produced with the same or similar mash bills from the exact same facility that vary dramatically in price.

I suppose I should have narrowed what I mean by whiskey to scotch-from-scotland, as price very much lines up with quality for scotch. The same is true for mezcal-from-oaxaca.

The current trend of "craft" distillers relabeling factory made bourbons and ryes is a different animal.