Take the plunge....
May 09 '00
Wine tasting is a very personal thing. At some stage all wine tasters have just been wine drinkers and the famous words 'I don't know wine but I know what I like...' have probably be uttered by every single one of us at some stage in our lives. This attitude will last most drinkers through their entire wine drinking experience, more's the pity. For a great many of the wine drinkers though this is just not enough...we have all been there and humans being what they are there is always a need to learn and understand more.
Having decided that your are interested in wines you may start to greatly vary your drinking habits and try a greater variety of wines, this will expand your horizons and probably expand the range of wines that fit into the 'I know what I like...' category, but ultimately it is still remarkably frustrating and dissatisfying.
Well my friends, my advise to you is take the plunge and try a wine appreciation course!!!
Oh dear, I can hear the groans from here, but believe me, as the Chinese proverb states, the longest trip starts with a single step, and this single step can open up the whole world of wines out there to your eager grasp (or sip as the case may be).
The concept is so simple. In the course that I attended many many many many many..(you get the picture) years ago the person that gave the course was a noted master of wines from a well known vineyard. The course started by introducing the concept of tasting, from the different flavors (berries, earthy, bready, apple, pear etc.) and feels (acid, tannen, sugar, bitter) and smells so that you could discern them from a liquid...at that stage we weren't even tasting wine.
Over time the different varieties of wines were presented with a lot of tastings done just focusing on the different characteristics, tastes and feels that you got from the different wines. Tastings were also done at different stages of the wine development to expose you to the other flavors that may carry over into the end product.
Finally the end result was that from a blind tasting you could discern the variety of the wine, the strengths and weaknesses of the wine and score it using a method currently used by most judges. What was remarkable to me was that in eight to ten short sessions this group or wine tasting novices could, in a blind tasting of 12 different wines, identify them, identify the characteristics of the wine and mark them within 2 points of how the experts had rated them.
Oh dear, I hear the groans again..not tasting yourself, being taught to conform, no individuality. Well that, my friends is where you are wrong. The course served the purpose that you wanted to achieve in that now you could tell someone exactly what it was about your favorite wines that you liked and why it was such a good wine (a byproduct is that you can usually see what is wrong with it also..) and all this aids in the selection of other wines that you might like to try in the future. Not only that but you can tell people what you think is wrong with the wines that you don't like and that also aids in your choices the next time around.
So in conclusion my friends, all I can say is take the plunge and increase your scope of wines by many fold, for now you will not only be happy to try the old favorites, but the quest for the new and interesting has opened up every other wine to you, all have an interest in your long journey through the vineyards of the world.......
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Epinions.com ID:
PALWalrus
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Location: Alachua, FL
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Good food, fine wine and close friends...who could ask for anything more?
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