Comments on: Oops! When famous wine writers get it wrong

By: Dirty

Dirty — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:04:23 +0000

Confusing Syrah and a lot of CA Pinot is easy to do. The big ones come off like diet Syrah / Syrah Zero.

By: Sean Thorniley

Sean Thorniley — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:54:33 +0000

I tell folks tasting wine with me all time that wine tasting is very subjective. Time and place have as much to do with the “perception” of a wine as the vineyard and wine maker. Humans are susceptible our own personal experiences and perception which influence everything we do.
Last night while sharing some wine with friends we watch a comedy that was the favorite of one of us and only one other of the six of us had seen it. While the humor was not my style it wasn’t bad, especially since three of my friends loved it tremendously (thus I enjoyed their experience as part of the whole), while my wife thought it boring and longed for her two hours back. We were all in the same room sharing the same food, wine and film, but had several different experiences.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:18:34 +0000

I made a similar comment on Eric’s posting. Expectation is such a powerful driver for the experience a person has. Depending on the measuring height of the expectation, the experience can either jump that bar with ease, or barely pull itself over it. It’s the same idea as hot-coal walkers training their minds to take them into a state where the coals are not hot. Of course, the burn in this case, is realizing the wine is not the one you thought you were tasting. I believe it’s an easy mistake for even the highest-trained palette to make and it’s a testament to people appreciating reviewers, but also exploring their own tastes.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:48:36 +0000

Hey Michael, totally agree. It’s the internalitanlionize of style.

By: Michael Lasky

Michael Lasky — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:40:50 +0000

We performed an experiment some time ago at a tasting panel at Appellation America. We blind tasted wines from Napa Valley and had to guess what the varietal was. We had a bit of egg on our face when it was revealed that some of the wines we thought were Cabernet Sauvignon were in fact Syrah and one was a Merlot. But then that went towards our belief that there is a homogenization of wine production that, as in this case, makes it difficult to decipher a Cab from a Syrah or whatever.