The secret to happiness is low standards.
And okay, not wine, but…
Well yeah. After a certain point I get to be you know it’s wine, you drink it and enjoy your meal with it. Then again if it is red dry and spicy I am pretty much going to be happy with the wine.
A really nice wine drunk with pretentious snobs who are trying desperately to impress each other with how much they know about wine is 9.3 times worse than 3 boxes of Franzia drunk with good friends.
I rate this comment… 98 points.
Tune in next week for another installment of “You’re wrong about that thing you enjoy!”
The guy at the start is Roger Wilkins, his cider farm is just outside Glastonbury. Used to go there every year before the festival, gorgeous stuff, he sells cider (and cider brandy), cheese and boots (a large pile has built up over the years from festival goers for some reason).
Nah, it is just poking fun at subjective pretentiousness. Just cuz it says Petrus doesn’t mean it is good, and just cause it says Baby Cham (shudder) doesn’t mean its… Uh… I can’t go through with that.
The solution here would seem to be to have completely blind taste tests. Hahahaha, I crack myself up. I know the biggest winemakers would never allow that.
I’m not a wine snob and am all for good quality, cheap wines. Price, label design and other non-flavor factors DO push people’s expectations, especially with products they don’t know well.
But this video mixes a lot of stuff in a very messy way. Their own tasting is ridiculous. Picking a ridonculously good for the price, bargain wine like Santa Rita as your low end skews the results drastically. Also, while I’m doubtful about significant differences between different decent glassware, doing a blind taste test out of shitty plastic cups that aren’t designed for wine GUARANTEES that people won’t tell the difference because it takes the sense of smell out of the equation completely.
A really nice wine drunk with friends who don’t have that much knowledge about wine finesses and don’t care about showing off is even nicer. 
…the downside is that the usual Chateau de Tetra Pak wines then taste awful for next couple weeks…
Like so many things, its in how you use it.
Sangria anybody?
drool
…or mulled wine…
Used to have a gallery and we gave away a lot of two-buck chuck. When people complained about the shitty wine I would say, “There is an easy solution to that problem and it leaves more for the rest of us. So, thank you!”
We did serve decent beer though.
So, survival supplies?
This reminds me of symphony orchestra auditions. Once they were truly blind, including rugs so women’s heels couldn’t be detected as they walked in – surprise! – quite a few women and people of color were winning spots in orchestras that had previously always gone to white men.
I am reminded of a book my parents (long term wine buffs, dad used to collect wine labels) have that sends up wine tasting:
Ronald Searle’s Winespeak.
I can find the images online but most seem to be missing the captions, which defeats the whole object.
That box of Franzia is probably better than 99% of all wine drunk throughout history. Especially compared to a bottle after a week open. I love boxes (there’s a fair selection now) because I can keep wine around, draw just a glass, and not feel wasteful. And in summer a tall glass of half box chardonnay and half seltzer over ice with a squeeze of lime is quite refreshing.
Similar to other purchases that have to do with price / quality /personnal-preference / branding-psychology, reminds me of the hi-end audio folks that claim their $10,000 turntable is SOOOOO much better than a $500 Technics simply out of pricing / branding / variations of construction. I own a vinyl shop and tell customers you like what you like, let your ears (and in this case taste buds) guide you
