Like the subject says, I'm talking about prejudices you have about certain aspects of wine, especially those that you retain even if you know they're somewhat illogical.
Here are mine (with responses to each at the end):
1) Rose is cheap, somewhat sweet plonk made for people who don't actually like wine. It is the cheap domestic lager of the wine world.2) Syrah makes a beautifully aromatic, medium-full bodied wine with finesse. On the other hand, Shiraz makes over-extracted, heavily manipulated, jacked up alcohol and fruit bombs with no character.
3) Burgundy (as a region) is hopelessly complex, quality is all over the place at all price points, and for the prices you pay, it is simply too dangerous to try to get in to it. Therefore I never buy Burgundy, and know next to nothing about it from a taste-experience point of view. Anything I do know comes from a handful of free tastings, and my experiences with Oregon PN, which I assume to be more consistent and a better value in general.4) Nothing scoring less than 84-85 points can possibly be that good to drink. No matter who rated it, there has to be something noticably wrong for it to score less than 85.
5) Red wines from cooler climates are uniformly bad. Finger lakes, Austria, Germany...it's best to just avoid these, even at free tastings.Responses to each of my 5.
1) I'm having some luck overcoming the rose = "white zinfandel" association. That being said, I still very rarely buy them, and if I do, chances are that they come in the form of sparklers (Crystalino and Gruet Rose, for example). I did make some headway on a recent trip to France, where I was handed quite a few glasses of Tavel and other southern Rhone roses. I even brought a bottle home, which is currently the only bottle of rose in my cellar (Domaine de l'Arjolle Meridienne).2) Syrah = nice northern/southern and Californian wine. Shiraz = cheap over-extracted plonk from southeast Australia. Yes I know they are the same grape, but this is one association that will not go away, even now that I've tried some truly excellent Aussie Shiraz (Penfolds RWT, for example). Part of me wishes they'd name the good stuff Syrah so I'd have less of an aversion to it. I know this is completely irrational, too.
3) I'm not convinced this one isn't just a prejudice. Someone try to convince me otherwise.4) This one actually became obsolete about 3 years ago, when I had a beautiful, elegant Zinfandel from August Briggs that scored a lowly 80 points from one of the critics (I forget which, probably Parker). Perhaps for $38, Parker was expecting a monster, jammy, in your face Zin, instead of the lower alcohol, very elegant, well balanced style that this was. Oh well, I loved it, and it was an eye-opening experience that help free me from being a slave to scores.
5) Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but it's certainly been my experience thus far.Anybody else?
- Chris