- Wine
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Can you taste the difference between a fine bottle of wine and an average vintage? I enjoy wine with meals and serve it to my guests often. I don't drink any alcohol other than wine and some beer here and there.
So, I read with great interest news of a recent experiment where they gave a group of wine tasting experts wrongly labeled wines. The first part of the experiment switched the bottles and labels of the expensive wines with the cheap wines. Every wine taster to the last praised the sublime flavors of the wrongly labeled "cheap" wine while criticizing the "average" bottles.
The second part of the experiment was even more interesting. The researchers took white wine and colored it with food dyes to make it look like red wine. The wine "experts" all praised the fruity red flavors and fine bouquet of this "outstanding red vintage."
I can usually taste the difference between certain varieties of wine. I can usually guess the Burgundy from the Beaujolais. But I am not so sure I could really discern the truly fine bottles from the not so bad ones. A few times I have appreciated the taste of what I was told was a really fine wine.
About a year ago, after being dismayed at how much I paid for a recent case of wine, I switched over to boxed wine for most casual celebrations. Some of my friends look down their noses at the boxed wine. But the box gives you the equivalent of 5 bottles of wine for the price of 1 decent bottle. And the taste isn't too bad. When decanted, I've even had some of my more wine-conscious friends praise the wine, asking for the label. One more advantage: the boxed wine stores easily and because of the air-tight spout, last for a long time.
This holiday season, my guests will get decent tasting and decently priced wine from a box. And no one will be any worse off for it.