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'You
are always right' I was chatting to Simon Woods at a tasting today. Simon is
a very good wine writer who’s been at it much longer than me, and I
asked him how his latest book project was coming on. Called ‘I
don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like’, it’s a slim
volume targeted at wine newbies and is due to be published in November
– an ideal stocking filler at £4.99 (Mitchell Beazley). The reason I mention this is because Simon revealed that
the first chapter is entitled ‘You are always right’. This got me
thinking. I think he’s onto something here. Dear reader, no matter
how inexperienced a wine taster you are, you are always right. The qualifier is that you are always right as long as you
are assessing a wine for your own purposes: if you were to turn up at
a tasting and said with conviction that a white Burgundy was from
Alsace, or you pontificated loudly that a £3 Cava was a more complex
sparkling wine than Krug, then it would be fair to say that you would
be wrong. And people will think badly of you. But if you say that you prefer a fruity but simple
Beaujolais to first growth claret, or Australian Chardonnay to
Montrachet from a good grower, then I’m not going to argue with you
– you are right. After all, it’s your palate, and palates both
differ among individuals and change with time. We all live in quite
different taste worlds, and our own taste worlds change dramatically
with age and experience. For this reason no one can tell you what you
‘ought’ to like. Consider the foods you used to like as a child, that you
really aren’t keen on any more. And then think of some of the
flavours that you didn’t appreciate then, but which are among the
most compelling for you now. I can think back to how difficult it was
to drink that first half-pint of beer, yet now I love the stuff. I’m
also struck by how the wines that appealed so much to me when I first
became interested in the subject aren’t ones I care for terribly
much now. Yes, my tastes have changed, and are probably still changing
now. What does this mean if you are new to wine? First, that you
are right, now. Your tastes will change, and you’ll be right then.
But beware of stocking your cellar too full with things that grab you
at the moment, because you might not be as keen on them in 10 years.
And do expose yourself to a variety of styles and types of wine, to
give your palate freedom and space to evolve. If you get the chance,
I’d also recommend ‘benchmarking’ with the accepted classic
wines, to put some landmarks on your taste maps. Finally, do buy a
copy of Simon’s book when it’s out in a couple of months – I
haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure it will be a good read. |