Are we wine snobs?

Interestingly, I just read the introduction to the 2004 edition, and the editors were very specific about stating that they were penalizing producers in scoring for using too much oak. They were very empphatic about wanting more traditional grapes and styles, less use of standardized methods, and planting Cabernet instead of local varities. What they say could not be further from what you say.

You are, again, partially correct. Actually, most folk would benefit from learning how to walk properly, with good posture, and equal weighting of their feet, plus how to chose proper shoes. But I digress from wine, which is, after all, why we are here.

If one finds a class, a book, or a discussion "pretentious," they should walk (properly) away from it.

One should face every day as a "student." There is far too much to be learned to miss just one day. I feel that way about wine. I have not sampled it all. I have not visited every wine producing region. I do not even know some of the major producers, but I am always ready to learn - to be "educated" about wine.

Hunt

I'm sorry, but your allusion is lost on me here. After all, I have already admitted to being both a wine and a food snob. Now, if you are refering to pomposity, I try to shy away from that, though might not always be successful, but I am learning...

Hunt

Uh, lutfish? Seriously, it sounds like a great start to the evening. Only problem that is see is pairing the wines: soup=PN, scallops=SB, corn&crabChard, or maybe a white Meritage (not the actual "Meritage" necessarily, but a nice blend), then the foi gras w/ apple, hm-m, maybe a Muscat de Beaun de Venise, or a TBA Riesling? Lotta' possibilities. BTW, how will the lutfish be prepared?

Hunt

What I am trying to do is to remove the 'pseudo-academic' aspect from the 'learning'. The jargon is largely useless to even experienced drinkers. It is impossible to convey sensations through words. The jargon is off-putting to many.

Well, try some of the Argiolas wines. They're all excellent. From Sardinia.

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Michael, I would like to know how you have come to this conclusion. Remember, I am a European, I started drinking wine when I was about 8 years old (diluted with water, it is true, and msotly because my parents were early adopters). Today, close to 57, I try to learn more, and, being both francophoe (which you are not) and italophone (which, rather more awkard, you are not, either), I have followed the French and Italian NGs concerned with wine, and, know what? People put (almost) the same kind of question that poor Jenna did. This, good sir, is true. Also, I have had the distinct pleasure of tasting wines quite off the cuff and without appropriate foodstuffs with both French and Italian. Please don't tell me this didn't happen, I was there, and reasonably sober for at least some of the time ... Stephen Spurrier, who I think is a bit of a gentleman, and whose opinions I value, in the 70s actually opened a wine shop in Paris to teach the French to enjoy wine. TYis is to my midn true, and I think it goes to show that the Europeans do not ahve a natural sense for wine - any more than colored afroamericans of a necessity have an inherent sense of rythm. (Not politically correct or what?)

Cheers

Nisl Gusatf

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In fact started with Soave Classico Ca' Rugate 2002 with scallops, soup,. and crab. Worked very well indeed. With foie gras, Bruno Sorg Gewurztraminer Vielles vignes 2004. Aso quite acceptable.

Then we emptied the dregs of a Coteaux de Layon Ch Montbenault 1988 from Tuesday with nothing but our own comapny which was quite enough.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

Were, Finland? Iceland? Ireland?

Same here. Birthday Nov 3.

I find that difficult to believe.

There are always going to be exceptions, but in large measure the Americans are behind the Europeans in wine culture.

Not a fan of poetry either, I bet.

Jose

Uh, no it wasn't. It was from your first post, and she hadn't said anything of the sort. Check google.

This was your initial response.

Maybe she has no interest in having food with wine with the girls. What I suggested for you is just as good advice as what you suggested to her.

I know, and I know you know. That's why I picked it as an example. She probably doesn't.

Tasting wines is analgous to reading a label. The label doesn't taste like "wine with food". Nonetheless, reading the label, even if only to see that it says "Chianti" or "riserva" or "Tocai" or "Vintage: February", gives you a clue as to what the wine might go with. Of course, you need to know what "Chianti" means, which you do by... reading labels and trying the associated wine with food! Ditto tasting.

So don't use the language of the trade where it doesn't apply. Use your own words when they are appropriate and meaningful to you. Sipping a wine in a wine shop without a meal does not obligate you to pontificate on it for eight minutes and give it a percent score. :)

Jose

Not with Veronelli anymore who died in November 2004.

M.

This is because there has been a genuine reaction by consumers to this style. Now both SF and GR are trying to do course correction, but it may be too late.

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For what it's worth, I am, by conquest (1658), Swedish. Also, I have travelled in the rest of Europe since 1962, spend my summers on the French Meditteranean, and occasionally (too seldom, more's the pity) drop into Italy. I get along in French, Italian, and German (apart form broken English). So I'd say I am as European as they come.

Cheers

Nils Gsutaf

It is possible to suggest them, but impossible to decsribe them.

Then she should not complain that her Chianti Classico Riserva was harsh. Deal with reality.

She was thinking that the wine as at fault. The fault rather lies with the use to which it was put.

She was not just 'tasting' but drinking. I don't follow what you wrote above at all.

Oh, but many would....

Why not? She was, actually, having it with food. She just chose the wrong food. And she wasn't complaining about the =wine=, she was commenting on her choice of wine, hoping to learn better how to choose wine and (finger) food to go together.

I didn't read her comments that way at all. Well, ok, a little. (and who knows... maybe the wine wasn't the best example of the breed). She chose something, and found it unsatisfactory. She was disappointed. She wants to learn how to choose better. That's all. But to that point, one's choice depends on the use to which it will be put, and given the use (wine with cheese and the girls), which wine would be best. You have already said that it is the red wines you insist must be drunk only with a meal, that leaves a lot of white wines, some of which may go very nicely with cheese. I think she was open to different cheeses, and even different finger foods. What was the "given" was that the event was not a meal; it was wine with finger food and the girls. (Even I'd be interested in that! :) There are wines that would work better, and worse, and there are reasons.

She certainly didn't need to be shouted at.

I guess I was getting back to the "tasting wines is bad" theme.

Then they are providing entertainment for the likes of you and I, should we choose to enjoy their unwitting comedy channel.

I agree that many get overly pretentious, but that is not fatal. It is but one (side-)step on the road to learning, after which we all will feed the daisies.

Jose

What is the critical difference you are trying to convey?

Jose