'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.
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