The movie Somm was one of the funniest unintentional comedies I’ve ever seen. Just fake it til you make it, apparently. If you fail, simply keep retesting. Drink what you like. :)
Is wine fake?
331–340 of 559 posts
Re: Is wine fake?
#332One of my professors in grad school was really into wine and every couple of years he would put on an after-hours wine tasting class for a semester. One of the points he made was that there are absolutely wines which are objectively better and worse and that experts can reliably tell them apart. He had met enough experts who could identify a vineyard and vintage blind to know there was something to it. But sitting on…
It's common wisdom in France. If you're paying more than 20 euros for a bottle, it's probably already too much. And it's very common for people to buy in bulk at the favour of seasonal discounts or from the producer. If you want to look smart at a dinner party, bring a bottle of something nobody's ever heard about that's remarkably cheap for what you get.
Luckily France doesn't have to pay $1 million an acre like a Napa winery.
Re: Is wine fake?
#333Two scientific points to bring up about this article: 1. When the author talks about Coke vs. Pepsi, he comes to the conclusion that the reason people prefer Pepsi in blind taste tests but Coke in unblinded ones is "Think of it as the brain combining two sources of input to make a final taste perception: the actual taste of the two sodas and a preconceived notion (probably based on great marketing) that Coke should t…
Yeah it’s like the difference between competition bbq and craft bbq. Competition stuff is packed with flavor since the judge will get 1 bite. Craft bbq is all about eating well and is balanced.
Re: Is wine fake?
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
>notes of blue I'm so stealing that
It's a running joke in my circle to describe the taste of any expensive wine, beer or coffee as, "strident, yet insouciant."
The classic cartoon for this:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/80/42/058042c06780bbc0fa3a...
Re: Is wine fake?
#335One of my professors in grad school was really into wine and every couple of years he would put on an after-hours wine tasting class for a semester. One of the points he made was that there are absolutely wines which are objectively better and worse and that experts can reliably tell them apart. He had met enough experts who could identify a vineyard and vintage blind to know there was something to it. But sitting on…
> One of the points he made was that there are absolutely wines which are objectively better and worse and that experts can reliably tell them apart. He had met enough experts who could identify a vineyard and vintage blind to know there was something to it. But sitting on top of that there is a frothy market that is driven by fads, speculation, and hype. I'm sure there are people that can identify different tastes.…
I would personally put many things such as coffee and beer there - I've grown in cultures that have and consume them a LOT, but I'm 45 and still hate the taste of both. Acquired taste one way or another, and I never bothered acquiring it.
(Interestingly enough though, two of my buddies also never had a taste for them, until in their late 20s they literally decided to "get into it". Boggles my mind if you're not caffeine addicted in your impressionable teens, why you'd actively TRY to develop the taste in your adulthood... But they did, With entirely predictable results :)
Re: Is wine fake?
#336Wine is just fermented grapes. It is not magic. Expensive bottles of wine may be better on average, but largely just because they put in even more quality controls and so deliver a more consistent wine. It is not magnitudes of a difference. People talk about wine like it is magic or high art. That there is something deeper to understand. There really isn’t.
But grapes are not all the same: besides the taste of grapes varying depending on the soil, climate, orientation to the sun etc., there is also the judgement of when to harvest. Once in harvest season grapes can approach and then pass the desirable sugar level in a matter of days. During the winemaking process there are many variables that cannot be codified from season to season because of variation in the grapes, s…
This is all true, but much of the variation can be controlled with modern techniques and careful monitoring. Not magic, science. Again, this has a cost, so it is not that it has no value, but it does not justify a 400% - 1000% markup.
Re: Is wine fake?
#337Re: Is wine fake?
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
And 8 euro wine at Monoprix is better than some >$20 I’ve had in the US. My guess is in France competition is so high and it’s easily sourced that prices don’t necessarily correlate as closely to quality as it does in some other markets.
The US also has very high taxes on wine compared to the wine-producing countries of Europe (which AFAIK subsidize it). Similar to how a pack of cigarettes costs $15 in NYC and $6 in Raleigh, NC.
Interesting that it’s $6 there, when it can apparently be sold profitably for $1 elsewhere:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings...
Re: Is wine fake?
#339As 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 yo…
My dad tells the story of how he went to a shop to pick up some wine when they were being economical, and was in the "value" section. A wino of the classic type approached and pointed out the (I believe it was) Franzia.
"That's the good stuff," he said, then added confidentially: "...doesn't give you the shakes."
My dad bought the box and many more over the years. Never got the shakes. Quality is relative!
Re: Is wine fake?
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once found myself at a fast food joint where there was a self serve fountain with Diet Coke in the regular Coke dispenser. I hesitantly asked if that was the case and the counter person cheerfully admitted that they'd run out of regular Coke and figured nobody would notice the substitution. I regret not asking how many people had, in fact, noticed and inquired.
I think people who regularly drink Coke might not notice the difference right away but for someone who drinks diet drinks, regular coke tastes like straight syrup now.
I noticed immediately. I find the flavor of artificial sweeteners (and some of the recent plant-derived sugar substitutes) as distinctive as you find sugar.
I recognize the irony of including HFCS among the "natural" sweeteners. Isn't that just 10,000 spoons (of sugar)?