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Is wine fake?

asteriskmag.com

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Re: Is wine fake?

#51

Post by voldacar »

p1necone wrote: post #26
gspencley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been a lot of blind wine tastings done and the results are always interesting. Sometimes cheap bottles score as high, or higher than vintages. Other times people can spot the cheap "carton" wine easily. My wife and I love to cook, have discussed opening our own restaurant, have eaten at lots of very expensive "haute cuisine" restaurants and have tasted lots of wines. Part of the "problem" is that taste is…

The secret is that a lot of cheap wine is pretty darn good. I imagine there's somewhat of a correlation between price and quality, especially at the absolute bottom end of the pricing scale. But it's a very loose correlation.

It really depends a lot on the region. For example, price and quality don't correlate that much in Burgundy. It's easy to spend a few hundred dollars on a mediocre bottle.

Re: Is wine fake?

#52

Post by betaby »

KineticLensman wrote: post #6
noodlesUK wrote: post #3

I am no wine guru but I do know one thing for sure. There is definitely such a thing as bad wine. If paying a little more would guarantee not having a terrible bottle, that would make me pretty happy. In the real world I've not found that to be true though.

In Croatia many years ago, we ordered the cheapest bottle on the wine list. It was disgusting. The locals were amazed that we didn't know to water it down before drinking.

It is a tradition there? What is the name of that wine?

Re: Is wine fake?

#53

Post by bombcar »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #32
bell-cot wrote: post #11

Is there anything which involves both... (1) lots of subtle and subjective judgement calls (2) humans yearning to show off their wealth / sophistication / status ...which is NOT fake or widely-faked?

Text editor choice. Those are definitely, completely, for sure real.

There are zero subjective calls there, however. My choices are objectively correct and laid down by God Himself, all others are ontologically evil.

Re: Is wine fake?

#54

Post by zasdffaa »

lkrubner wrote: post #2

I worked at WineSpectator.com in 2012-2013. I'll say this in their favor: the wine tastings were blind. A bunch of interns would set up the wine tasting, pouring the wine into glasses and then hiding the bottles. Only after everything was setup were the editors allowed into the room. So when the editors drank the wine, they had no idea if they were drinking a $9 bottle or a $900 bottle. They had to focus on the taste…

I don't have synesthesia to any notable degree but what you're describing kind of makes sense as being it. Not tastes for me, but sounds can elicit such responses eg. a sound having graphite steel I can well imagine. Or other things that would baffle another person.

Frankly, "notes of blue and a hint of graphite steel" sounds too remote from normal experiences to be consciously made up - I mean, who's going to relate to that anyway?

Re: Is wine fake?

#55

Post by bombcar »

mfrisbie wrote: post #15

I took the introductory sommelier exam as a hobbyist, but I was in a room with ~200 people in the industry. We collectively blind tasted about a dozen wines, and I watched as people around me mostly guessed correctly with astonishing accuracy. There may be some nonsense in wine tasting, but it is definitely possible to develop a body of knowledge and experience that allows one to identify wines based on only your sen…

Some people say you can't tell the difference between Pepsi, Coke, and the diet versions of both, but I certainly can.

I've no doubt a sommelier can tell differences between wines.

What I do suspect is that you can enjoy moderately priced wines just as well as many more expensive ones.

Re: Is wine fake?

#56

Post by kube-system »

ramesh31 wrote: post #44
gspencley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been a lot of blind wine tastings done and the results are always interesting. Sometimes cheap bottles score as high, or higher than vintages. Other times people can spot the cheap "carton" wine easily. My wife and I love to cook, have discussed opening our own restaurant, have eaten at lots of very expensive "haute cuisine" restaurants and have tasted lots of wines. Part of the "problem" is that taste is…

>My wife and I love to cook, have discussed opening our own restaurant, have eaten at lots of very expensive "haute cuisine" restaurants and have tasted lots of wines. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking “I like to cook” means “I would like to run a restaraunt”. They’re two completely different things.

Potentially that may have been the content of their discussion.

Re: Is wine fake?

#57

Post by 13415 »

metadat wrote: post #4
noodlesUK wrote: post #3

I am no wine guru but I do know one thing for sure. There is definitely such a thing as bad wine. If paying a little more would guarantee not having a terrible bottle, that would make me pretty happy. In the real world I've not found that to be true though.

The thing is, wine "quality" is entirely subjective. I've not found much correlation between price and whether I will like it or not. The only safe bet is that if it tastes too strongly of vinegar, probably people won't like it as much. But some European wines (Spain and Italy) intentionally produce wine with a non-negligible amount of vinegar taste. I know of a single maker that only puts out wines that I consider g…

Anything related to taste and smell is partly subjective, partly intersubjective. The sense of smell varies from person to person due to genetic differences, different learned tastes, partial anosmia, etc. This is also the reason why one like a perfume and another one hates it. The chromatograph can analyze a substance objectively but every nose smells it a bit differently.

Re: Is wine fake?

#58

Post by jahsome »

e10jc wrote: post #9

I've had a lot of red wine in my life; like, probably too much. The only bottle with a memorable taste came from a wine tour in Napa Valley where they said half the field was destroyed in a fire, so they were getting rid of the rest for cheap. The wine was super smoky... and absolutely delicious. I wonder why that never became a thing.

You may find you like peaty single malt scotches.

Re: Is wine fake?

#59

Post by lisper »

As someone who ran a wine-tasting group for several years I can tell you this: there are definitely discernible differences between wines. What there is not, however, is any kind of absolute standard for what constitutes a "good" wine. Different people like different things. There are two things that makes wines expensive, and neither of them necessarily correlates with whether a particular wine will taste good to you:

1. Old wines cost more because you have to pay for the storage.

2. Low-production wines that have an affluent following cost more because supply and demand.

And that's it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you if you prefer a Gallo Rhine Wine in a box to a Romanee Conti.

That said, there is definitely a skill and an art to being a Sommelier, and that is the ability to take someone's description of what they like and match it to what's on their wine list. There is no such thing as a "good wine" independent of any particular person's tastes (except if you have a wine that has, say, turned to vinegar) but there is definitely such a thing as a good sommelier.

Re: Is wine fake?

#60

Post by w_for_wumbo »

I feel like the bigger argument to make here, is that taste itself is fake. It's an illusion created by our brain, by taking in all of the various factors and determining whether we should be rewarded by it or not.

We see countless time color has effect on taste, scent has an effect on taste, mood has an effect on taste, expectations have an effect on taste.

Taste therefore isn't this static thing that we seem to think of it as.

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