I’ve been watching a few YouTubers who review and teach about wines on their channel and an interesting theme has developed that I’ve never given very much thought to. Or maybe I’ve avoided giving it much thought. How much does personal preference influence our judgement of a wine? It would be easy to say that we taste a wine objectively. That we simply look at its elements to make sure all the pieces fit in a good way and the wine is as I like to say… “Well built.” However, I’ve noticed some of these Youtubers openly saying that personal preference cannot be avoided when judging a wine. That bothers me just a bit. I understand what they are driving at, and transparency is always preferred above all else. The question is, can we train ourselves to be objective to the point where personal preference takes a backseat to objectivity?
A true test here is understanding what it is that makes a wine well-made or not. Can I taste a wine that I don’t personally enjoy and still realize that it is a well-made wine? That all the elements are in place? My first experience with this came when I was tasting a wine from a local winemaker (local meaning in the San Juan Islands). He had made red wine using fruit from Red Mountain in Washington State. Now, Red Mountain is my favorite Washington State appellation and most wines from this region strike a happy chord with my pallet. However, this particular red was nothing like any Red Mountain wine I had tasted up to that time. I simply did not like it personally. At first, I gave it a thumbs down. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I was letting personal preference guide my thinking rather than analyzing the wine for what it was intended to be. So, I tried it again with a completely different setpoint, trying my best to be objective. I knew the winemaker had a preference for European style wines. He made this red with that mind frame. That is a hard thing to do with fruit from Red Mountain, which usually attributes big fruit and structure to wines that come from this area. This particular winemaker found a way to make a Bordeaux style red from Red Mountain, complete with rust, pencil lead and earth. Once I tasted it with that viewpoint in mind, I was able to divorce myself from personal preference and analyze the wine for what it was. That was a big turning point in my career. Was it a wine I would buy for myself? Probably not. That did not mean it wasn’t well-made, so I was able to taste it objectively and that is something I’ve tried to do since that time.
Have you ever heard someone say that a type of wine deserves more respect? This is an interesting statement. I actually don’t agree with it. Would it be more appropriate to say a wine deserves more attention? The saying that a wine deserves more respect may be a misnomer. Many people do not know what a certain varietal is, therefore, they ignore it when shopping for a wine. Respect and attention are entirely different concepts. As a critic or student of wine, all varietals get my respect, but not all get my attention. A classic example of respect over attention is Chardonnay. The casual wine drinker may be influenced by negative connotations that they’ve heard about Chardonnay from their peers. Therefore, they jump on the bandwagon of ABC (anything but Chardonnay). Is that a respect issue or peer pressure? Honestly, there are people out there who have never given Chardonnay a chance. Is that lack of respect or simple ignorance? Maybe, just maybe, they should give it more attention. If they did so, they may find that there are examples of Chardonnay that they like. It’s not that they didn’t respect it, they just never gave it any attention. I’m sure there are people out there who show a lack of respect for a certain varietal and there is a simple term for them… Wine snobs. However, the general public does not disrespect a type of wine, they just don’t give it their attention.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
