So about 15 years ago, a friend got me into wine and it has been
downhill ever since. I mean, I love the stuff!! So I bought an intro
book on it, cuz I mean I'm a left-wing academic (History), so what else would I do? I mean,
I didn't want to embarrass myself and appear a philistine. "Windows on
the World Complete Wine Course" by Kevin Zraly was a great place to
start, as I discovered, and the book gave me a pretty good intro to
wine. I also bought 2 "reference" books that have served me well: "The
World Atlas of Wine" by Hugh Johnson and Janicis Robinson; and "Wine
Label Language" by Peter Saunders. I got about another 10 books, but
these three have served me especially well. I am currently reading Eric
Asimov's "How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto." Asimov, as most know, is the wine critic for the New York Times. I have been reading his weekly column for years. I started the book a while back but
put it down while I was writing a new course. The book makes me recall a
recent experience I had. My wife and I were at a wine tasting and two
bourgie right-wing dogs started talking to us. But they wanted to like
wine, and well that is a topic that can make me talk to folks I
ordinarily can't stand. It was interesting, because they weren't
obnoxious about wine and admitted they were not very knowledgeable. So
much so that I told them--because they didn't know--that different
grapes in France were used in different regions and that northern cooler
climates resulted in weaker more lighter-bodied wines than in more
southern warmer climates and different grapes were used depending on the
climate, soil, etc. And so, I informed them that red wines from Burgundy
used pinot noir grapes and generally had a lower alcoholic content than
wines from Bordeaux that used (mostly) cabernet sauvignon and merlot
grapes. This was a complete revelation to them, and since they didn't
like strong tasting wines, were now committed to buying French Burgundys
and Oregon Pinot Noirs (did I mention they have lots of money?). So
anyway, the reason I bring this up, is that Asimov is wonderful. He
absolutely obliterates the idea of the "blind taste test" and is even
wonderfully critical of the tasting tests that are not blind, such as we
do in our local wine shops. I mean Asimov enjoys them as much as I do,
and has made a career by conducting blind taste tests every Weds in the NYT
(and which is the only thing left in that paper that is still worth
buying it for, I might add). But it turns out that Eric is (something I
always suspected) a French Jacobin and egalitarian when it comes to
wine. This is quite nice. When I started tasting wine, I thought there
was an inadequacy in my tasting abilities and smelling abilities. I mean
what the hell is hints of "pear" in wine anyway? I just couldn't discern
things that others seemed to do with ease. After several years, I
figured out my taste buds were fine. I mean I discovered it wasn't just
me, and that tastings--blind or otherwise--were not always the best ways
to evaluate wine and that such tastings could be both revealing and
deceptive. The number of times I thought I liked a wine in a tasting and
then bought multiple bottles of it, only to discover it was "too fruity"
and didn't go with the food I wanted it for, is a large number. And so I
pulled back a little and would buy a single bottle and take it home and
then decide if I liked it enough to buy more. Don't get me wrong, I have
had the experience of tasting a wine and recognizing immediately that
the stuff was the nectar of the gods and to buy as much of it as I
could. But this has not always been the case. And slowly after talking
with folks who objectively knew a lot more about wine than I did, I
discovered wine is indeed a mysterious thing and cannot be "mastered" in
a swirl and a sip. I still recall being at my local wine shop --a
very bourgie shop--at Christmas and they invited me into the back room
as they were closing for the holidays. The owner was having a blind
taste test for fun and as a reward for his employees and he invited me
to partake of the tasting. I happily obliged. A few of his young
employees had passed their first round of the exam for sommeliers and a
couple of others were studying for it. And the wine was just frigging
amazing. I actually got one right, a French Bordeaux. I mean I got that
part of it right. What I missed was its vintage, a frigging 1972, are
you kidding me?? And yes, the owner is a really, really nice guy to
serve this to his employees and me on Xmas Eve. But what I discovered is
I did ok, I mean to say that the somms were often just as off the mark
as me. But no one cared, cuz we were all having a great time and we were
all in a spirit of egalitarianism in the face of something we all just
loved. I mean I can sort of discern--not always --"herbal" from
"floral." I'll admit to once going outside to my wife's herb garden and
sniffing and licking herbs to see if I could discern "herbs" in wine. It was not a
helpful thing. I have since learned that some traits of wine are
described as "herbal" in comparison to other general traits that people
discern as "floral" and I can sort of do it now, but honestly I can't
say I really discern the flowers. But I do love wine and have gotten
more discerning over the years, and can talk a pretty good game. And
that pretty much makes me a "fellow traveler" with Asimov and why I like
him and his skewering of "wine culture." Since he has the best job in
the world, every year he partakes in a tasting of wine from the Burgundy
producer, "Domaine de la Romanée-Contí, who Asimov describes as "the most
exalted producer in Burgundy" and the bottles cost thousands of dollars,
with the event usually held at the Carlyle Hotel or the Metropolitan
Club, I mean it can't get any bourgier. Everyone has their attention on
Aubert de Villaine, who is the director of the Domaine. Here is a
wonderful passage from Asimov:
"Here at this tasting, all the elements that people seem to fear about
wine come together. The tiny pours underline the exclusive nature of
this particular beverage. The furious note taking as people swirl and
taste exaggerates the notion that a hidden language is being spoken,
used to describe aromas and flavors that only a trained expert can
detect. The stiff, elbow-to-elbow arrangement seems to amplify the
danger of making a mistake, of saying the wrong thing
or--catastrophe!--knocking over a few glasses. Even de Villaine looks
uncomfortable buttoned up in his tie and checked sport coat, as if he
would far prefer to be among the vines in Vosnes-Romanée or almost
anywhere outdoors rather than here in the stilted Manhattan splendor.
In the vast spectrum of opinion that encompasses the community of people
who love wine, few would deny the greatness of D.R.C The wines can cost
thousands of dollars a bottle, and, sadly, outside of wealthy collectors
or the privileged few who are invited to the tastings, most people will
never have the opportunity to drink them. Even sadder, I think, is that
people will not hear de Villaine as he speaks about the wines. What he
has to say might encourage people who feel anxious about wine to
reconsider their fears.
'These wines are quite elusive,' he says. 'You grasp and lose, grasp and
lose.' Then, ever the Frenchman, he adds, 'They are like women.'
So often we look at wines as if they are the sum of definite qualities.
They smell like raspberries and taste like cherries, we say. This wine
goes with fish sautéed in butter and topped with herbs. That wine is
just the thing for scallops and cream in puff pastry shells. Drink this
wine within the next year. Don't drink that one for ten years
Amid all the confidant authority with which we assert our opinions about
wine, perhaps only one thing is actually certain: Wine is ambiguous.
Indeed, as de Villaine says, wine is elusive. The minute we think we
have grasped the essence of a certain bottle, the wine changes. No
sooner are those aromas and flavors set down on paper, in the
unmistakably florid lingo of the tasting note, than they are not there
anymore, if they ever really were."
This is a thoroughly enjoyable book if you love wine, and a great one to
give a friend who thinks he/she might be interested in learning about it but feels insecure about
it. Cuz when the revolution comes, all of us are gonna drink and savor
the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Contí, no?
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Top reviews from other countries
jjscenario
Essential reading for anyone interested in wine.
Reviewed in India on April 22, 2016
R. S. Stanier
Gently insightful but no masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2012