when you drink wine, what are you really tasting? - Page 2

Originally Posted by Listi

I am a beer guy mostly, not a wine person (as I am 20 years old and do not have the requisite funds to embark upon wine connoisseurship.) However, I am fairly critical and due to my mother's insistence on learning how to differentiate different tastes in things, I'd like to think I have a somewhat well developed palate for things.

Personally in a wine I like it to be thick and rich, fruity, smooth, with peppery and spicy notes. An abundance of flavour is my main judge on a wine's character, with smoothness as a close second. Any good wine should be smooth, but most wines I've been told are "good" by people are smooth and flavourless. People seem to be super into alcoholic beverages that taste like nothing so that they may swill with ease, I like excessive drinking as much as the next person, but I certainly don't base QUALITY on such a factor!

My favourite type of wine, out of those that I have tried, is Malbec, followed closely by Cabernet Sauvignon. All the wine I've tried has been on the recommendation of family members who are more experienced in wine than myself, I do intend on learning about wine someday. As I have a very deep love and respect for matters of drink.

So, an uneducated one's view on good wine :P

Also very aware that the biggest factor determining quality, not just in wine but in everything, is the amount of money it costs. It's sad that people equate cost with quality, as so much more than quality goes into the cost of an item.

Originally Posted by holymadness

The amusing part of this is that I have never heard a wine connoisseur describe wine in these terms. Sounds more like you're talking about cigars or chocolate. Part of the inherent difficulty of food critiquing must be developing a mututally intelligible vocabulary. For what it's worth, after going to several wine salons and tasting several hundred different bottles over the last year, I've figured out exactly what I like -- wines from the Languedoc/Côte de Nîmes region. That being said, it's hard to describe what it is about those wines save that they are full-bodied and yet are not very tannic.

Originally Posted by Johnny_5

The big margins come from the case discounts. Buy 5 cases the bottle price comes down to $24, but when you buy 10 cases it comes down to $16. Delicious margin.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Not only that, but most stores make more money on KJ and Yellowtail due to sheer volume, even if the margin on each bottle is small.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Not sure who you're reading or talking to then. I would say "fruity," "spicy," and "peppery" are probably three of the top 10 descriptors. "Fruity" is probably the #1 descriptor for Cali wines of all the major red varietals. Do a search, in this forum, for any of those words. Here's a post that uses them all: http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.p...&postcount=171

Originally Posted by holymadness

You're right about fruity, but it's the only one. Spicy and peppery? Uh, maybe for mulled wine. I grew up in a family of wine amateurs who followed Californian/Australian/New Zealand/Oregon vintages very closely and never heard them uttered once. Never saw them in the pages of my dad's hundreds of Wine Spectators, either. Much more common were dry, sweet, full-bodied, tannic, [insert name of fruit here], earthy, rich, delicate, yadda. Having talked to dozens of independent wine growers since moving to France, I can almost guarantee the terms are never used here.

But it's all hair-splitting anyway. My point is that I found it bizarre to hear him use those terms to describe a wine. That shouldn't be the case if there are standard criteria according to which we ought to be judging it, unless I've never been exposed to 'spicy' or 'peppery' wine, which I doubt would be the case. Your post: smoke and leather? Hot? What does that even mean? If I opened a bottle that tasted like smoke and leather I'd be inclined to throw it out.

Maybe it's exclusively an American thing.

Originally Posted by Connemara

Most people don't know much about wine. Especially people in my age bracket. They drink it because it's "red" or "white."

Originally Posted by why

When people take a sip of wine and rush to announce every flavor I

Originally Posted by why

When people take a sip of wine and rush to announce every flavor I

Originally Posted by gomestar

I tend to agree. Unless, of course, that is the intention of the gathering or a major focal point.