Perceptions of wine

Eric Asimov has continued his thread on the perceptions of wine's quality and value in his column in today's NY Times. This is a topic of enduring interest to wine drinkers as well as those who write wine off as an elitist beverage. The key part of the article, I think, is the condemnation of the pseudo-objective scoring system for its intentional stripping away of context from the drinking and enjoyment of wine--and the particular charms of this or that particular wine in a specific time, place and company. The emotional components of wine don't come from the producer, however expressive and poetic certain of them may be, but from the emotions of the drinker himself.

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Comments

[Amanda Lynn]

typing all those big words on that little bitty machine must have made your fingers tired, but thanks for deconstructing Eric for us, and for taking time from your busy schedule to explain our world from your unique perspective, you're a peach!

[terence]

Thank you, Amanda, for recognizing my inherent peachiness. Beyond that (the obvious?), Eric's take on context is at the heart of our general misunderstandings and myths about wine. In a word, there is way too much mythical bullshit -- two words, sorry -- going around about wine, a lot of it perpetuated by the press and producer flacks.

[andrea gori]

I can only agree with Eric, the result of a wine tasting is TOTALLY related with environmental requirements, and company should be skillfully choosen!

[Jeremy Parzen]

I was impressed by what Eric had to say about Americans' apologetic attitude toward wine:

Yet drinking more hasn’t made Americans more comfortable with wine. People with little interest in wine tend to see it as somehow foreign and threatening. Even among the curious, fears abound, of being embarrassed or appearing unsophisticated, of choosing the wrong wine, or of liking the wrong one. Every year books come out purporting to help the winephobic avoid embarrassment, impress their bosses or learn shortcuts to wine knowledge. But I sense no decrease in the number of people whose questions to me are prefaced by a sheepish, “I don’t know anything about wine, though I really should.”

It seems that we bloggers have our work cut out for us!

Sorry I'll miss you in NYC, TH. Travel safely.

[epices6]

You sum up Asimov's article very well. I thought that his foregrounding of the social context of wine drinking, "the particular charms of this or that particular wine in a specific time, place and company" was extraordinarily important. Also his funny stab at ratings-obsessed wine buyers (how many times have I seen high ranking by purported wine journals I never even heard of).

On the other hand, blind tastings also have their charm, if only to laugh at fellow experts (and oneself) after the anonymity of the bottles has been lifted.