Whining about wine. Callin all Wine lovers and experts!

[glenda99]

I love my cookery programs but have never seen what all the big fuss is about matching wines with meals, you always hear people exclaim ah what a wonderfull wine choice they made with the meal , but surely if you make a bad winechoice then its not exactly going to destroy your whole gastronomic experience is it, and the end of the day theres still alcohol in that wine! Is all this winebuffery just an excuse for the upper classes to flex their creative verbal muscles describing the wines or does a glass of wine really make the meal? Help!

[Sqad]

"Upper classes".........you certainly invoke snobbery in your question.

Drink the wine that you like,as It will not spoil YOUR meal as you describe it as "winebuffery"

It would not enhance my meal by drinking red wine with fish and white wine with meat.

[glenda99]

Well sqad i can assure you that wine tasting neverstarted out in the mash pie and jellied eel shops of east london!

Zacs is there any scientic proof to prove that it ''refreshes your pallette" what exactly does this the fermented grapes or the alcohol, and does grape juice or other alcohols have the same effect?

Noknowledge thats a very knowledgable answer!

[glenda99]

Heres an interesting article...
To ensure impartial judgment of a wine, it should be served blind — that is, without the taster(s) having seen the label or bottle shape. Blind tasting may also involve serving the wine from a black wine glass to mask the color of the wine. A taster's judgment can be prejudiced by knowing details of a wine, such as geographic origin, price, reputation, color, or other considerations.
Scientific research has long demonstrated the power of suggestion in perception as well as the strong effects of expectancies. For example, people expect more expensive wine to have more desirable characteristics than less expensive wine. When given wine that they are falsely told is expensive they virtually always report it as tasting better than the very same wine when they are told that it is inexpensive. French researcher Frédéric Brochet "submitted a mid-range Bordeaux in two different bottles, one labeled as a cheap table wine, the other bearing a grand cru etiquette" and obtained predictable results. Tasters described the supposed grand cru as "woody, complex, and round" and the supposed cheap wine as "short, light, and faulty."[4]
Similarly, people have expectations about wines because of their geographic origin, producer, vintage, color, and many other factors. For example, when Brochet served a white wine he received all the usual descriptions: "fresh, dry, honeyed, lively." Later he served the same wine dyed red and received the usual red terms: "intense, spicy, supple, deep."

Maybe its just a mix of really the power of suggestion an being tipsy!

[glenda99]

"and the end of the day theres still alcohol in that wine! '

Thats what i mean carabint!

[Sqad]

glenda......you mention the "upper classes" and the "mash pie and jellied eel shops of east london! " but what about the largest group.........." the middle classes?"

Lived seven years in Whitechapel.........I loved mashed pie and jellied eels.

[wendilla]

Never mind all that Ballarney just open the bottle and pour.

[glenda99]

Your right sqad the middle classes too!

[Sqad]

CARABint/ wendilla/ knonwedge/........I will do a deal with you.......you drink the "cheap stuff" and leave the "goodstuff" to Zac and myself...............Deal?

[Sqad]

:-)