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"?
I'll punch the first person that says that about a piece of beef! Because a piece of beef - no matter how good nor what part of planet Earth you source it from - should never taste like that! Plain and simple.
Now if you want to get into a discussion as to what is the correct and/or best way to prepare and eat a given slab of beef, then there is a hearty argument about that. We can also have a huge argument about different cuts of meat vs. price, esp. things like Kobe beef, Wagyu, Fillet Minon, marbling factors, rareness etc. etc.
ad nauseum.
It's not as complex as tasting wine but it'll still send people into a tailspin.
Originally Posted by
uncertaintraveler
Wine is pretty much nothing more than overpriced grape juice.
So go drink grape juice. Sheesh - what do you want from society?
Originally Posted by
uncertaintraveler
And, in my view, people like to go and on about subtle flavors and hints simply because they like to seem superior to others. To me, they just look like twits.
And once again I'll say:
no one likes an idiot who thinks they know it all when they know nothing. It doesn't just apply to tasting and characterising wine - it's pretty much any sphere of influence or knowledge.
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 get this.
Some people
will (in fact, most will) drink up and go, "Hey, that's pretty good stuff." Some will stop there and just drink away. Some like to delve into why it tastes good, which is what characterising wine is all about, because not many wines will taste exactly the same as each other, yet those wines could all be good to drink.
If you don't understand it, stay away and live and let live. Ignore the twats that want to be uppity when they know squat, because they will never be respected nor liked in any circle of influence.
The same thing goes for tasting other kinds of alcohol (except without all the flowery hoopla like "hints of peach" etc.), such as single malts, vodka and even to a minor degree with beer (e.g. one is more malty than the other; in fact, boutique beers with certain flavours are a niche market). The flowery hoopla comes back when it comes to different kinds of cheese. I'm not even going to try and explain (because I can't!) how people interpret the moods of artists at the time of painting a particular painting when they observe it in an art gallery.