hrmm-ing, glass in hand....
May. 9th, 2008 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanAn article in the New York Times about wine drinking, wine-buying, and wine perception that anyone who's ever felt even slightly uncomfortable ordering a glass or a bottle should read -- Wine’s Pleasures: Are They All in Your Head?.
My own thoughts?
* drinking wine is not consuming a product. It's a sensation, an experience, a moment of taste and smell that's intensely personal and intensely social all at once, and every person will experience it differently. An expert has the breadth of experience and the vocabulary (and the confidence) to define that moment. That does not make his or her definition definitive.
* price is influenced by scarcity and demand, not (always) quality. Judging the quality of the moment by the escalation of the price tag is to miss the craft (and the magic) entirely. Some very expensive wines are marvelous. Some very inexpensive wines are marvelous. The ones I remember the most?* Were the ones opened and shared with people I love. The moment made the wines extra-special, not the other way around.
All IMO and E, of course. Feel free to debate....
*I remember the godsawful wines, too, of course. But that's a different kind of special moment. "Oh my god, this is awful! Here, try it!" will live forever in infamy...
My own thoughts?
* drinking wine is not consuming a product. It's a sensation, an experience, a moment of taste and smell that's intensely personal and intensely social all at once, and every person will experience it differently. An expert has the breadth of experience and the vocabulary (and the confidence) to define that moment. That does not make his or her definition definitive.
* price is influenced by scarcity and demand, not (always) quality. Judging the quality of the moment by the escalation of the price tag is to miss the craft (and the magic) entirely. Some very expensive wines are marvelous. Some very inexpensive wines are marvelous. The ones I remember the most?* Were the ones opened and shared with people I love. The moment made the wines extra-special, not the other way around.
All IMO and E, of course. Feel free to debate....
*I remember the godsawful wines, too, of course. But that's a different kind of special moment. "Oh my god, this is awful! Here, try it!" will live forever in infamy...
