Mike Tommasi wrote:
> wrote:
> > Troll? What the hell is a troll? I'm offering reasons why I think
> > tasting is fundamentally wrong. Argue otherwise, or be silent.
>
> A troll tries to consistently inflame discourse, and resorts eventually
> to strong verbal abuse, as you did recently. This alone does not make
> you a troll.
>
> Generally speaking, by ignoring trolls, one makes them disappear after a
> short while. For this reason alone, I don't think you are a troll, but a
> rare variation thereof, a mutated troll. Everything else fits. Troll
> indeed may not be the right word. There is a consensus building up that
> other terms may be applicable. So please take "troll" as a compliment.
I appreciate your rare show of restraint. My point, and it is a valid
one, is that enjoyment of the wine is the primary objective. Simple
tasting is only one tool, and in many cases, a misleading one. MOST
people cannot evaluate a dinner wine from a simple tasting. In fact,
the VAST MAJORITY cannot do so. I know, from personal experience, that
a wine which tastes quite astringent and bitter when I first taste it
without food (for example, Barbera or Nebbiolo, Taurasi, Primitivo,
Patrigliano, or any big red for that matter) will change quite markedly
once I start eating food with it.
Only wine producers and wine experts (and I DON'T include Parker in
that class) have the capacity to evaluate a wine based on tasting
alone. The number who qualify as 'experts' is VERY, VERY small. I'm
taling about people who buy and sell and produce wine for a living, not
dilletantes and dabblers.
The wine producer, who shepherds the wine from grape to aged bottle,
understands at each stage what the wine should taste like, because he
has done it thousands of times, and this knowldege has been passed down
from his father and grandfather before him. Someone who works in an
office and reads a review of a wine in the Wine Spectator will get
NOTHING from tasting a wine outside of the context of a full meal. I
was in a wine shop when a haufarus came in gushing that she wanted a
bunch of different bottlings of Pinot Grigio to have a 'wine-tasting
party'. What utter rubbish. This is merely some fad that has arisen
among the Nouveau Riche who THINK they know what they're doing, but
DON'T.
When we have our dinners, we frequently open several bottles of
different wines, and a few of us will note the differences among them.
It is pointless, however, to evaluate the wines beyond that point.
That's not why we drink the wine and have the dinners. We drink the
wine and have the dinners for the sheer PLEASURE of doing so. It is a
complete waste of time to sit around and assign points.
The way to buy wine is to take a few bottles home and see what you
like, after having them with a dinner, not just tasting them in
isolation. If you like them, buy more of them.
The most reliable guide to buying wine is the knowledge of the
producer's style. I buy mixed cases. I never buy a case of one type of
wine. In my cellar are a variety of wines, seldom more than two or
three of any one bottling of anything.
I stopped buying Vietti wines when every bottle I tried was
disappointing. That's also when I stopped paying attention to wine
reviews. Vietti wines have been consistently given high marks by the
wine press, but I have never had a good bottle. It could be a problem
with shipping or storage, but I don't care. I'm not buying any more
Vietti wine!
>
>
> --
> Mike Tommasi - Six Fours, France
> email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail