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Is wine fake?

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Re: Is wine fake?

#281

Post by rad_gruchalski »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #79
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…

"a hint of rotting grapes, notes of a bar fight"

“a light scent of a vomit in the dumpster”

Re: Is wine fake?

#282

Post by pclmulqdq »

girvo wrote: post #244
nitwit005 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, there is the usual trick there. How do you transform your wine from a $5 wine to a $10 wine? Raise the price by $5. The assumption of quality is something exploitable.

There’s a better trick: chuck it in a blender for 30 seconds. Really softens the shitty flavours some cheap wines have haha

This is literally true, and it's why decanters exist. If you oxidize a wine, it mellows out the sharpness by letting some of the protein break down.

Re: Is wine fake?

#283

Post by wgj »

antognini wrote: post #49

One 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 looks like no one has said this yet. Many of the higher price/quality wines are expected to be cellared for a certain number of years after release. Opened too soon, they will have too much tannin and/or acidity. It costs money to keep wines under the correct conditions. One thing that drives up the price of a bottle is whether someone else already did this for you. A 2014 Bordeaux right now, on average, will cost a lot more than a 2020 of the same wine.

Re: Is wine fake?

#284

Post by cmrdporcupine »

kodachrome64 wrote: post #215
extragood wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess cost of labor is a major factor. If you buy any California wine, for instance, it was picked by a migrant worker. Times haven't changed much since Grapes of Wrath, other than it's typically Latino workers rather than Dust Bowl refugees.

As someone living in an Ontario wine growing region, I can assure you that we bring in plenty of migrant workers every year.

They're still paid more than California labour. And in any case, apart from not needing irrigation, growing conditions here are way more difficult than California. (At least for now). And equipment and input costs also way higher.

(I grow about a 1/2 acre of grapes here in Ontario)

Re: Is wine fake?

#285

Post by docandrew »

I went to dinner with my dad and a coworker of his when I was a quite a bit younger. The coworker suggested a bottle of _very_ expensive champagne that he and his wife had enjoyed together before.

It was very nice, and I said something like, “my limited experience with champagne probably doesn’t give me the proper appreciation for this.”

He said “Nonsense. If it tastes good to you, then it’s a good champagne, period.”

That’s kind of been my motto for food and drink ever since. Regardless of price, some things are just going to please you more than others, so enjoy them.

Re: Is wine fake?

#286

Post by dmix »

analog31 wrote: post #276
antognini wrote: post #49

One 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…

I have sometimes speculated that the purpose of the $50 bottles is to make you think that you're being sensible by buying a $20 bottle, when really the $10 bottle is just fine. A few people will certainly buy the $50 bottle, but the real money is in upsale at the lower end.

Reminds me of the loss leader strategy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

A retail shop will put TVs on sale for 50% off but only keep 5 in stock. They advertise it everywhere, 100 people show up looking for cheap TVs, find it's out-of-stock and buy one of the expensive ones that are only 5-10% off.

Re: Is wine fake?

#287

Post by selimthegrim »

triceratops wrote: post #207
wwweston wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the landlord will do their best to extract any surplus value you generated through your skill and ingenuity It sounds like you're describing landlord behavior where they don't simply arrive at a target rent and happily collect it, but attempt to actively monitor revenue of businesses renting from them and then ride the line between capturing that in rent increases below the line where it's worth it to the tenant no…

A residential landlord can't charge you much more than market rate because you could just move. At some price point a mover is going to be cheaper. Often there's also various rent control laws. Commercial landlords, especially of restaurants, have way more pricing power because the tenants can't just move. Their customers expect them to be there, or there's a ton of existing foot traffic - location, location, locatio…

And you haven’t even covered the magical world of triple net leases yet

Re: Is wine fake?

#288

Post by AdamTReineke »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #270
rfrey wrote: post #124

I made a career limiting move at my first job when I arranged a blind wine tasting at the house of the CEO, who was a pretentious wine snob. I'd have been fine if I stuck to $40-50 bottles but I snuck in some Gato Negro from Chile, then made sure everyone knew when that was the CEO's favourite. Started my first company shortly thereafter, probably that incident is as responsible as anything else for my entrepreneuria…

> but I snuck in some Gato Negro from Chile, then made sure everyone knew when that was the CEO's favourite. I'm missing something. What made this a big faux pax?

It looks like it's a $5 bottle of wine, which would make the CEO's taste appear cheap despite the reputation as a connoisseur.

Re: Is wine fake?

#289

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Is wine fake?

#290

Post by scrumbledober »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #195
bombcar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Some people say you can't tell the difference between Pepsi, Coke, and the diet versions of both, but I certainly can. I feel sorry for people with such insensitive taste buds. I can understand not having a preference , but being unable to tell the difference at all? I wonder what other flavors they're missing out on in other foods. At the other end, yes, there are some sommeliers with very sensitive tastebuds that…

at least with wine there's less of an ability to quantifiably refute most of the bullshit
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