Originally Posted by
violist
There's more to wine than the showbiz person imagines (his/her vehemence
bespeaks someone who hasn't got a palate but is jealous of those who might), but
most of the people who make a show out of the stuff are in fact just pretending.
As far as "corked" wine goes, it doesn't mean that there's cork or the taste
of cork: the term refers to a particular flavor that is "once tasted, never
forgotten." It was at one time ascribed to defective closures, but I've had
wines bottled with plastic closures that have this particular quality, which
has been likened to wet dog, cardboard, and other savory things.
There are a couple other defects that I think allow a wine to be sent back:
oxidized (pretty common among older and badly stored wines); vinegary
(rare, despite the etymology).
That's just the sort of half-baked winey nonsense I was on about.
I've had wine costing a few euros out of an industrial-sized vat in a dusty roadside bodegas in Spain that's gone into an empty half-gallon milk container that has been far superior to any hundred dollar piece of Napa Valley hype.
American wine buffs actually believe their own nonsense whereas the French know they're just continuing a centuries-old con trick.
But the best example of all is Australia. They steam-rollered the traditional French dominance of the market by producing cheap,fruity drinkable plonk that everyone loved.
And then they got ideas above their station, put up the price and produced bespoke this and boutique that.
Result ? The Chileans sneaked in unnoticed. And that's why they produce the best good,cheap,fruity plonk loved the world over.
Snobby wine is a con originated by wine makers and promoted by restauranters to artificially hike up the value of average plonk and thus their profits.