DS Forums

 
 

Wine tasting experts


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-06-2013, 18:16
fender101
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Reading
Posts: 3,604

Has anyone got a clue what they are going on about? It's all this "I'm getting a bit of this or that". It mostly just tastes like wine to me.
fender101 is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 05-06-2013, 18:46
cbe21ok
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Close to the Toon
Posts: 1,465
I prefer plonk, i buy Gallo or Blossom Hill for £4 a bottle, sometimes less when there are on special offer. Then i spash out on a £6 bottle or a £10 bottle if feeling really flush and i think to myself i wish i had just bought the plonk as it tastes nicer but that's just me. I know a dude who regularly buys £50+ bottles of Bordeaux red and he reckons it's the business but it tastes pretty average to me.
cbe21ok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2013, 19:45
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
They did a test on a documentary where they put food colouring in white wine and the tasters though it was red. Spouting bollocks about fruity red berries and all that crap.
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2013, 23:49
Welsh-lad
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Mid Wales / Canolbarth Cymru
Posts: 37,555
"I'm getting autumn hedgerow with a hint of tractor oil, and now layers of raspberry, leaving the solidity of oaken bark on the palatte"

No you're not you twunty. You're 'getting' fermented grape-juice like everyone else.
Welsh-lad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 01:18
vosne
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: madamoiselle never
Posts: 11,453
"I'm getting autumn hedgerow with a hint of tractor oil, and now layers of raspberry, leaving the solidity of oaken bark on the palatte"

No you're not you twunty. You're 'getting' fermented grape-juice like everyone else.
I go to a lot of tastings. I said one had a hint of car tyres a couple of weeks back
vosne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 01:43
diablo
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Fylde Coast
Posts: 8,103
I recall Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke doing their wine tasting tests many years ago in the original Food and Drink programme on BBC2. They sometimes did supposedly blind wine tastings but they were just too accurate and rarely got anything wrong. I fink it were fixed.

There are big differences in wines, no doubt about that. the amount of fruitiness, acidity etc. do vary. Though under proper blind testing many experts are easily fooled.
diablo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 02:58
evil c
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Wirral Peninsula
Posts: 4,777
There was that series on BBC in 2006 with James May and Oz Clarke (Big Wine Adventure), where Oz tried to turn James into a wine connoisseur. Oz kept going on about 'terroir' as well as the 'getting a bit of this', but I see it as something that wine experts dream up in order to give them something to pad out their literary flights of fancy.

Cigar experts do exactly the same thing and it's totally meaningless to 99.9% of us who just want a nice glass or two of wine or a satisfying smooth cigar with a coffeee after a meal.
evil c is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 08:14
Jambo_c
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,725
Obviously it's down to the person. I'm not really a fan of wine but I went to a wine tasting and whilst I could tell the difference between some, I couldn't get all the different things they were saying.

I'm into real ale and beer though and I know people who say "All pale ale tastes the same" or "all stout tastes the same" whereas I can pick out all the different flavours, the hints of chocolate or grapefruit or whatever.

I guess it just depends on your palate.
Jambo_c is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 09:09
smudges dad
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Fort William
Posts: 22,296
Real ale and wine are incredibly variable. Whilst it is correct to say it's nothing more than fermented grape juice (one of your 5 a day), the type of grape, the ground it's grown on and the weather all play an important part. An example was that I went to a vertical wine tasying many years ago. All wines were the same grape from the same vinyard with the same winemaker but 9 different vintages. They were all different and that was mainly down to the age and the weather through different times of the year. As an example, one year it was almost a drought and the grapes were really small until about a week before harvest when there were massive thunder storms and the grapes swelled up creating a really intense flavour, compared to a wet year where the flavour was not as well developed. Something to do with the roots reaching further into the bedrock to get water and bringing up different minerals with it.

It's the same with real ale - massive variation, not always good, but always interesting.
smudges dad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 09:29
cbe21ok
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Close to the Toon
Posts: 1,465
Anyone remember Floyd Uncorked and that wine expert Jonathan Pedley?, he used to make the most awful noise when he was swilling the wine around in his mouth.
cbe21ok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 09:43
malpasc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,354
All wine tastes like wine.

However, different grape varieties and combinations, along with where they were grown, and how the wine was matured etc will affect the taste.

You can get Sauvignon Blanc say from France, and another one from New Zealand and although they are made from the same grape I find I get more of a herbal/grassy flavour coming through the one from New Zealand.
malpasc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 12:59
Pumping Iron
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 22,992
I got given a 2003 chateau margaux premier cru recently as a wedding present. Its supposed to be top notch stuff, but it'll be wasted on me. I will probably just flog it in a few years.
Pumping Iron is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 13:02
cassius_west
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 947
They did a test on a documentary where they put food colouring in white wine and the tasters though it was red. Spouting bollocks about fruity red berries and all that crap.
Ha, saw that! 'Bout 5 or 6 weeks ago was it? Laughed my tits off.

Fools...

cassius_west is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 13:49
vosne
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: madamoiselle never
Posts: 11,453
I got given a 2003 chateau margaux premier cru recently as a wedding present. Its supposed to be top notch stuff, but it'll be wasted on me. I will probably just flog it in a few years.
How much d'you want for it?
vosne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 14:03
NP73
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 250
I'm into real ale and beer though and I know people who say "All pale ale tastes the same" or "all stout tastes the same" whereas I can pick out all the different flavours, the hints of chocolate or grapefruit or whatever.

I guess it just depends on your palate.
I was in a pub a couple of years ago, and identified that they had got the badges the wrong way around on their real ales, something they denied. I was absolutely certain, as one of them was Timothy Taylor's Landlord, which has quite a unique taste. I went in a couple of days later, and the barman admitted that when the supervisor checked, the lines had become crossed in the cellar.
NP73 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 14:47
Jambo_c
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,725
I was in a pub a couple of years ago, and identified that they had got the badges the wrong way around on their real ales, something they denied. I was absolutely certain, as one of them was Timothy Taylor's Landlord, which has quite a unique taste. I went in a couple of days later, and the barman admitted that when the supervisor checked, the lines had become crossed in the cellar.
Yeah, you can definitely tell the difference between different beers. I just assume that it's the same for people who are into wine. My wife isn't into real ale but often tries my beer and invariably just says it tastes of "perfume". I had a lovely pale ale that had a really intense tropical fruit flavour (almost Lilt like!) and she couldn't even get that.
Jambo_c is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 15:53
Ads
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Pimlico, central London, UK
Posts: 14,894
A good wine tester can recognise the brand, variety and vintage of wine, just from a blind tastng. Just because some posters cannot tell the difference between different wine types, a lot of people can. I certainly find that £8-£10 bottles generally taste far better than £4 bottles.
Ads is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 16:33
epicurian
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 15,890
The coffee company I used to work for required us to attend regular cuppings so we could learn to taste the difference between the different single origins and blends we sold. It took time, but eventually I got there.

If you put a glass of Tempranillo in front of me I wouldn't be able to tell you it was a Tempranillo, but I've been to wine tastings and I could taste the difference between the varietals and vintages, and I knew what I liked and what I didn't like.

And as pointed out up thread ^^ the same goes for ale. To some a hop is just a hop, but others will be able to appreciate the differences between a Willamette hop and a Challenger hop.

It's a skill you can develop if it's something you have an interest in, and if not then it'll just be fermented grape juice. Which is fine too.
epicurian is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 17:11
Pumping Iron
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 22,992
How much d'you want for it?
Tbh I have no idea how much its worth, but my friend who gave it me, sells fine wines for a living and said it will go up in value over the years.
Pumping Iron is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 17:51
vosne
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: madamoiselle never
Posts: 11,453
Tbh I have no idea how much its worth, but my friend who gave it me, sells fine wines for a living and said it will go up in value over the years.
I'd get him to look after it then - assuming he has good storage. Provenance is very important in top end wine and you will lose a lot when trying to flog it if it's just been stashed in your house somewhere.
vosne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2013, 21:32
walterwhite
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 21,738
Has anyone got a clue what they are going on about? It's all this "I'm getting a bit of this or that". It mostly just tastes like wine to me.
Yes. Decent wine and even some cheap wines taste of different things, perhaps you have something wrong with your tastebuds.
walterwhite is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-06-2013, 11:23
Pumping Iron
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 22,992
I'd get him to look after it then - assuming he has good storage. Provenance is very important in top end wine and you will lose a lot when trying to flog it if it's just been stashed in your house somewhere.
OK thanks for the tip
Pumping Iron is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-06-2013, 12:06
Watcher #1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Here <-------------
Posts: 6,644
They did a test on a documentary where they put food colouring in white wine and the tasters though it was red. Spouting bollocks about fruity red berries and all that crap.
Saw that - it was interesting that taste is affected by what you see, as well as smells and basic taste receptors.

I often find that reading the flavour descriptors on the bottle can put a name to some of the flavours. And if someone else describes a flavour, you can often tune into it.

At the end of the day, the real question is "Do I like it?" - if yes, then drink and enjoy
Watcher #1 is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:55.