Are Wine Experts Doing More Harm Than Good?

Snooth.com:

One of my "jobs," though more self-assigned than anything else, is to try and interest people in wine -- not just drinking wine, but talking about wine, reading about wine, and engaging with the wine world. One of my biggest obstacles? The wine world.

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Comments

[captainkennedy]

09:01 PM on 03/15/2011

Mmmm by some of the comments here it appears some people are really insecure about their wine knowledge. As someone who is in the business and has been for 30 years - if you think there are no qualitative differences to be discerned between various types of wine you are sadly mistaken. It's like saying there is no difference in the taste of some foods, in the quality of music or in the skill of the author in literature. It's about paying attention to the finer things in life - something many Americans are terrible at. If that's what you truly believe then just go on drinking cheap beer and guzzling down generic vodka.

[ABQ-Mike]

11:17 AM on 03/13/2011

Well, I got bored after the first page but this guy does do a pretty good job of describing whine experts there. Let's face it, if it weren't for the alcohol, and it were really all about the aroma/bouquet/flavor and the rest of the BS, nobody in their right mind would even consider drinking the awful stuff.

[Andres64]

04:34 PM on 03/12/2011

Wine "experts" are a joke.

In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn't stop the experts from describing the "red" wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its "jamminess," while another enjoyed its "crushed red fruit." Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine.
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/the_subjectivity_of_wine.php

[dnb310]

03:09 PM on 03/12/2011

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine."
Fran Lebowitz

[captainkennedy]

02:29 PM on 03/12/2011

Greg - I am perplexed about your comment on terroir - you make mention of it as "If it exists." Can you explain this? Doesn't every wine region have a terroir - just as every wine region has its own unique soil and climate? Granted some winemakers will not care about terroir nor do anything to let it express itself but imo this is different from the discussion of whether or not it exists.

[Gregory Dal Piaz]

08:56 AM on 03/23/2011

Hi Captain,

What I meant there was that not every wine, or vineyard for that matter, has a terroir that is expressed. many vineyards and wines do of course express their terroir but it is far from universal.

[xstevejx]

08:29 PM on 03/11/2011

Yes, there's definitely a difference between "expert" and "snob." Good experts won't belittle you for preferring something else and will usually encourage you to follow your own sensibilities. I can't remember who I heard say it, but I once heard a wine expert/enthusiast say, "A good wine is one that YOU enjoy drinking."

[French Toast]

08:04 PM on 03/11/2011

Fanatics exist in all areas of interest. Snobs are snobs wherever you go. Challenge them to a blind taste test :D