Good taste

Discussions about good taste are interesting. It can be provoking, and specially people who are sensitive will find the subject uncomfortable. In fact, the only time when the subject comes up and is discussed without hard feelings is when very few persons are envolved, and these persons have the same, or almost same, point of view in this matter. Why are most people afraid of discussing this issue? I'm not!

A while ago me and a friend of mine was uncorking a couple of bottles to try later on that evening. He had just returned from Switzerland where he visited a wine maker in Valais, a region from where I haven't tried so many wines, so I was really curious about what he brought to our informal tasting. I had already opened up a full bodied Refosco dal Peduncolo rosso (2001) "I Ferreti" and the potent Cabernet Franc (2003) "Vylyan".

I chose these as I knew that they were unknown to my guest, and hereby we could surprise each other.

After the first sips from the first glass my friend suddenly says:
- People have bad taste.


First I was a bit surprised by his sudden comment. Not provoked, only a little confused because the comment was so sudden and not directly related to his previous comment on the Refosco wine - which he liked.

After three seconds of thinking about what he said and ment I replied:
- I totally agree.

This may sound like we are some kind of self appointed judges of what is good or bad taste, and you may think that this is snobbery. Well, think again...

What I mean is when so many of the wine drinkers, or let's say, wine consumers, drinks so much lousy wine, and many times pays to much for it too, we can't accuse them for having good taste.

And it's not about money. Because we all know that money doesn't buy class - or good taste.

There are many examples which demonstrates this fact. One is when the middle class couple goes to a restaurant. They will probably spend at least 25 euros on the wine. Some people spend lots of more of course, but thats another discussion...
How much do you think the same couple spend on the wine for their Sunday dinner at home? Probably not more then 10-15. Most people don't even go above 5-7 euros for their grape juice consumed at home. The problem is not that the 7 euro wine is bad. The problem is that the 25 euro wine in the fancy restaurant probably didn't cost more than 7 euro if it was bought in the shop.

When you thought about that for a while you can then ask yourselves why people don't buy 25 euro wines in the shop to drink at home instead.

I think one of the reasons is that people don't care anymore, or can't. They are not thinking for themselves, and let the "experts" do the thinking part of the job. When it comes to wine people follow the so called wine expert tips, and believe in them too.
- Do you really think that the experts are unaffected by third parties, sellers and marketing professionals?

Therefor I equal 'good taste' with being independent when selecting - and it's not only about wine!

Before I end this article you maybe would like to know how the Swiss/Valais wine was? Extraordinary of course. I'm not publishing any tasting notes here, because I don't think thats important, especially if you can't try them anyway. But if you ever have been in the alps, and remember how clean everything is when breathing the high, unpolluted air. Imagine that in a glass of well composed red containing Syrah, Humagne rouge, Cornalin and Pinot noir; Balanced into perfection as a Swiss made watch.