hrmm-ing, glass in hand....

[lagilman]

An 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...

Comments

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Some cheaper wines can be quite good, and some very expensive wines can be relatively bad. I too used to prefer Aste Spumanti over Dom Pérignon. But as my palate developed, I found the Aste too sweet. I used to hate very tannic wines, and now I love them. It is all a question of developing your palate. As for the price question, most people who don't know much about anything and lack the confidence to say that they prefer the X that is less expensive, will always go with the more expensive thing. We have been taught since our baby-hood that you get what you pay for.

[retta-retta6.livejournal.com]

Nice userpic!

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

How true. I recall* one Balticon over Passover where David Honigsberg and I enjoyed some** wine before heading to the Art Show, where we had a blast*** critiquing the works.



*For fuzzy values of "recall."
**For even fuzzier values of "some". I think David and I had at least one bottle each. And the others with us weren't too particularly sober either.
***what pun?