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

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#161

Post by tptacek » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 4:39 PM UTC

eric_h wrote: post #160

kasey_junk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are fewer out-and-out fake scotch whiskey products; I can't, for instance, think of the Scottish equivalent of Templeton Rye.

But that doesn't mean price and quality are aligned. There are good deals in scotch, and there are bad deals. There are mediocre scotches that command huge prices for their brand. There's a sharp trend towards no-age-statement scotches clearing the way for more like that.

Also: part of the reason there are fewer fake whiskeys in Scotland is that they're practically all owned by Diageo and Pernod Ricard. Within those corporate families, distilleries are outsourcing a lot of their grain production, malting, &c. The stills themselves are mostly software-controlled. The median scotch is probably better than the median bourbon, but there's a case to be made for bourbon having higher highs.

There's also a trend towards startups lighting up silent distilleries in Scotland, so prepare yourself for craft scotch as well.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#162

Post by Grishnakh » Mon, Nov 07, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

metanoia wrote: post #79

Grishnakh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't drink wine for the alcohol, you drink it for the flavor. It's just like tea; no one drinks a nice cup of Earl Grey with Bourgamot for the caffeine. If you want to get liquored up, there's far cheaper and more efficient ways to do it than wine, and if you want caffeine, there's faster and more effective ways of getting that too that don't require carefully heating water and steeping a teabag. A lot of people…

> You don't drink wine for the alcohol, you drink it for the flavor. I really wish that synthehol (of Star Trek fame) were a thing. I was at a champagne tasting of 60+ wines from the best producers (Krug and Roederer come to mind), and made it through 25 or so, spitting each one, and was still terribly buzzed. If there were a way to enjoy the taste without the effects I would be all for it.

>I was at a champagne tasting of 60+ wines from the best producers (Krug and Roederer come to mind), and made it through 25 or so, spitting each one, and was still terribly buzzed.

I've never actually had that feeling, and always wondered what this "buzz" effect is. I've been to wine tastings, drank multiple glasses at once, etc., and never felt a thing.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#163

Post by selimthegrim » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 4:20 PM UTC

jeremysmyth wrote: post #152

ythl wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

There's nothing wrong with Esma Redzepova.

Re: How to get the wine you really want

#164

Post by vinayan3 » Sat, Nov 12, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

crispyambulance wrote: post #24

tpeo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A good friend of mine is actually a food/wine critic. He has said (and I think this applies to all good critics) that there's nothing special about the tastes of a critic. Some people may be more sensitive than others but critics are pretty much in the same population as the rest of us. The difference between a good critic and someone flapping their gums on Yelp is the ability TO WRITE something worthwhile about the…

I will say that some people's palate are quite limited. They only identify a few things as good. I've met people who basically wouldn't eat a green vegetable because it was yucky.

I'd expect critics to have eaten enough where they can judge many things.

I do agree putting it into words so someone else could have a sense of what it would taste like and possible be able to say if they would like it.