Wine tasting: Junk Science

I judge a red wine to be good or not based on the following two criteria.

If it has a sharp, sour sting it is probably a young and cheap wine and I won't like it.
If it is smooth (no acidic tang) and has a variety of flavours at various levels, I like it more.

That's it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Having been a member of a wine club for 40+ years, I agree with some of his findings. However, our panel of 18 tasters generally agrees on what is a good wine and what is plonk

Most of us, surprisingly, dislike whisky whereas there is also a large following of people who can discern the delicate flavours of different whiskies.

To get back to wine, there are more and more reasonably prices excellent wines available today than ever before. Ultra have their "Secret Cellar" range and Checkers have "Wines of the world". Bargains in both stores
 
Well I'm a coke connoisseur for sure.
Zero & light = plonk
 
Strange that the article excludes the wine guilds (and its masters). I guess the experts in mention did not do the examination (or in part guild members).
 
Picard said:
I judge a red wine to be good or not based on the following two criteria.

If it has a sharp, sour sting it is probably a young and cheap wine and I won't like it.
If it is smooth (no tang) and has a variety of flavours at various levels, I like it more.

That's it.
Click to expand...

I judge a wine to be good or not based on the following two criteria.

If it tastes completely crap and is completely unpalatable I won't like it.
If it tastes unpleasant but drinkable I still won't like it.
"If it is smooth (no tang) and has a variety of flavours at various levels" then hell has officially frozen over. :p

*puts on flamesuit*
 
satanboy said:
plenty wrong
Click to expand...

Tastes ok and if it was decanted into a bottle with a R150 label and offered to the "experts" it could easily score 10/10.

Reminds me of a steak house (I think) in Strand Street about 15 years ago which was decanting happy box into upmarket bottles and selling it that way. None of the customers had the faintest idea until an ex-employee with a grudge spilled the beans.
 
nightjar said:
Tastes ok and if it was decanted into a bottle with a R150 label and offered to the "experts" it could easily score 10/10.

Reminds me of a steak house (I think) in Strand Street about 15 years ago which was decanting happy box into upmarket bottles and selling it that way. None of the customers had the faintest idea until an ex-employee with a grudge spilled the beans.
Click to expand...

House wine by the glass maybe or are you suggesting they resealed bottles?
 
biometrics said:
House wine by the glass maybe or are you suggesting they resealed bottles?
Click to expand...

I can't remember the exact details but it was in the public eye for a few days and possibly even sold a few extra papers but, like all other scandals, it went away when something more juicy came along.
 
I think anyone who has tried any blind tasting knows how true this is.

I've only really been accurate with identifying the region, varietal, oaking and vintage of one once or twice. As much as we try not to be influenced by the label, who isn't going to look at a Sadie Columella and give it 90%.

That having been said, I still enjoy wine tasting, and enjoy buying fine wine. I definitely am influenced by a number of factors (other than taste, colour, nose) when I enjoy a wine, including the company I'm with, the weather, the food I'm eating (if any), how many wines I've tasted before, my pyschology (how I'm feeling) and whether or not I've been to the wine estate before.

Definitely not an accurate science, but a lot of fun, nevertheless, and generally I think that consensus between wine taster will distinguish identify the best wines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X