Choosing wine

I collect teacups.

Royal Crown Derby (made sometime after 1890)
What does that have to do with choosing wine?!

Well. There's a saying in the antiques and collectibles world: "buy things you like". I think art collectors say the same thing.

I think the same phrase applies to wine.

Good stuff
This is a much "nicer" wine than I'd normally have. Well. It's a more "expensive" wine than I'd normally have. I liked it. But I couldn't help but wonder how it really stood up against my favorite. Carlo Rossi Chianti.

I'm a *huge* fan of blind taste tests. I like Top Chef but I'd really rather see blind judging. We just can't help our biases and preconceptions.

I often blind taste test things. Sometimes I need help with that and sometimes, if things look similar enough, I can label containers and shuffle them around enough so I don't which is which. And that's what I did here. My hands down favorite? Well I probably wouldn't write about this if it was the expensive one! Yes, I preferred jug wine to the Fancy Pants Stuff. I was a little surprised with how easily I made my decision. I didn't have to go back and forth to think about it.

Maybe I just have an untrained palate. Maybe genetically I can't really tell. No that's not it. Because I can tell one from the other. I just prefer my wine from a jug. Mostly. Food will often have something to do with what I prefer.

So here's my advice when choosing wine. Pick something different now and then and if you *really* like it a lot, make a note of it. I have several favorites. But most of the time? It's more like Pepsi vs. Coke.

Never mind expert opinions. Every time I read a review where the author comments on the "quick legs" and what's "on the nose" and the "peppery" or worse..the "grassy notes" along with poetic descriptions of the "finish" I'm sorry, I just want to gag. I want the kind of wine old men drink from water glasses on hot dusty days with people dancing in the street.

Pussy willows are out! A week or so earlier than last year.

Tuesday 13 March 2012
I actually first noticed these on 7 March while out walking.