Originally Posted by
uncertaintraveler
Have you ever heard someone describe a cut of beef as having "notes of cherry, mixed with a hint of vanilla and cinammon, with a light aftertaste of caramel and peach"?
Have you ever seen the show Top Chef?
Originally Posted by uncertaintraveler
Seriously...if something is really _that_ good, it shouldn't take someone several hundred dollars and many months of "developing one's palate" to appreciate it. It should be good right from the start, and you should be able to immediately say "hey, that's pretty good stuff." If you have to develop an appreciation for it, then it never really was worth appreciating in the first place.
I don't really understand this argument. Do you feel the same way about sports or the fine arts, for instance? If you look at a piece of modern art and it is viscerally unappealing, does that just make it "bad"? Is there not some greater appreciation one gains of art when one learns a little bit about it, what the artist was trying to do, what they were responding to, etc.? It seems to me that in various aspects of life we can gain appreciation for thing through time and understanding. I would say actually my position is the opposite of yours: if you don't have to develop appreciation for it then the value of the items is often fleeting.
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FWIW, I actually largely agree with Showbiz. I think a lot of wine snobbery is just about ego. But I don't go so far as to say there is "good wine" and "bad wine." I think that's just as silly as saying there is "good food" and "bad food." There are shades of gray with both. I also do think that one can develop a palate that allows one to taste nuance in flavors.