Far from the Glass
My journey in wine may have started in a glass, but it’s taken me considerably far ever since. Wine doesn’t just stop when the last bottle has run dry or when fair company has left the room.
Wine is something you carry around with you (more often not literally) everywhere you go; be it when tasting different fruits, spices, and meats to develop your nose and palate, or random fact you learn about to help you in the social settings that wine is intrinsically encompassed in.It’s a continuous learning curve where the more you learn, the more you realise you know absolutely nothing.
I’ve sought out more and more books in this pursuit for knowledge, and surprisingly for sheer leisure as well, anywhere I can come across them. I recently borrowed Wines Their Sensory Evaluation by Maynard A. Amerine and Edward B. Roessler. I’m barely even through the first Chapter, I’ve come across intellectually concise statements I thought I should share with you. Read below:
Our first reaction to an aesthetic object, such as a wine, is apt to be purely subjective: we like it or dislike it. For a more lasting judgement however, we apply a certain objective criteria, consciously or unconsciously. These criteria may enhance our enjoyment of the wine, confirm our aversion to it, or otherwise change our initial reaction…
and
Our enjoyment of wine is thus essentially a learned response and is a complex mixture of intellectual and sensory pleasures. In addition, it has overtones of sensual pleasure and is obviously related to and supported by social customs. Our appreciation of wine is to a major extent subject to sensory skills and aesthetic principles that depend on experience…
lastly
Appreciation of the quality of wine does not depend on its reputation, tradition or price… The intelligent wine connoisseur must therefore have the sensory skill and aesthetic appreciation to be able to ignore with confidence both the ad agencies and the wine snobs.
This looks like it’ll be an interesting read!
Sources
- Amerine M. A., & Roessler E. B., 1983. Wines Their Sensory Evaluation. Pgs 6 & 7.
