On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 7:27 PM, Venkat Mangudi <[email protected]> wrote:
> My previous mail does not imply Charles is a wine snob. :) sorry, Charles. > Just that wines have matured in India. Charles *is* a wine snob. Which is to say that, perhaps unfortunately, I've "educated" my palate. I'm reminded of an article I read recently (maybe here?) which talked about the dangers of educating ones palate. The story included a guy who had been perfectly happy with $30/bottle sake until he went to a sake tasting where he compared various sakes. At the tasting he discovered that the sake he had been happy with tasted terrible next to "good" sakes, and that he was no longer satisfied with anything less than sakes at the $150/bottle level - and he wasn't willing to pay that much for sake, so he stopped drinking it entirely! This is one reason I prefer double-blind horizontal tastings, where I can discover that I actually like a cheap wine almost as much as the astronomically priced wines and stock up on the cheap stuff! For example, I have a rather expensive taste for nice Champagne. Krug '90 for example. :) However I have discovered, to my delight, that there are some very very tasty $30/bottle Spanish cavas that I am quite happy with. So I can save the Krug for special occasions, and drink cava the rest of the time. (Actually, here in Tasmania, I've found that the Clover Hill 2006 is quite drinkable, and reasonably priced.) Anyway, I found Indian wines (including Grover's La Reserve, Reveilo, and top end Sula) of five years ago basically undrinkable unless you were either amnesiac, desperate, or the guest of someone serving it. If you like it, good on ya, but I recommend you don't try it head to head with decent imported wines. I seem to remember Gautam mentioning finding "Goats do Roam" for example, which is a decent South African "Cotes du Rhone" style. -- Charles
