How analytical are you in your wine tasting / drinking
1. It’s wet, it’s giggle juice. I’m happy
2. I want to enjoy my wine, not think too much about it
3. I like to note what I drank and whether I liked it, as that’s useful for maybe buying again
4. I like to make a tasting note, to better remember what I thought of the wines I’ve drunk
5. I always make a tasting note and will make a point of referring to previous TNs to compare this wine with others I’ve drunk before
6. The opportunity to do a comparative tasting (e.g. horizontal or vertical) excites me and I’ll seek them out whenever practical. It’s the learning that I love, arguably more so than any hedonistic pleasure.
0voters
Sparked by a couple of recent threads, I see differing degrees in which we pursue this hobby. I doubt anyone here sees it merely as a way to get drunk, but maybe quite a few that want it to be a simple pleasure. At the other end, the thread on Barolo terroir shows that some are really happy being very analytical at times.
I suspect it’s not a simple scale, with differing occasions / moods leading to a different attitude, so maybe best to take the average of you choice (Median, Mode, Mean) when voting.
If you disagree with the categories, then simply choose the number you think that suits you best if 1 is purely hedonistic and 6 is wine geekdom and you sit somewhere between.
The choices seem to be applicable to different questions.
I don’t write tasting notes unless I post them here, and I don’t post them here very often at all. That doesn’t mean I’m not paying attention. But I don’t drink wine to “understand” it or place it in some sort of taxonomy. That might be a by-product, but not the point
They were examples aimed to help people get a feel for it. If you have a problem with them, re-read the last sentence and vote purely on your own feeling of where you’d sit on a scale of 1-6.
Ian you’re mixing too many variables. Analysis has nothing to do with writing a tasting note. And writing tasting notes have nothing to do with hedonism or analysis - they can be simply to advertise what you’re drinking or they can be for yourself, as one of your choices indicates.
Or maybe I’m confusing noticing with analyzing.
I think noticing is normal. Analyzing takes more time and usually involves a search for an explanation.
We notice things all the time. We don’t necessarily seek to understand them.
It varies, depending on the wines and my familiarity with them, the setting, the company and my mood. I can say that I am trending more hedonist and less analyst over the years.
I would choose all of the above at one time or another. Even if you worded the first one in such a way to condescend anyone that would ever dare to simply quaff a glass for enjoyment.
I usually just drink to enjoy it, with only a modest amount of critical analysis going on (and then, mostly just in my head).
But at certain times, I’ll adopt a different mode where I try to think about wine more critically and analytically, whether at certain tastings or visits, or where I want to try to contribute to the WB community with some observations about certain wines.
The diversity of the wine experience is endless, and that applies also to the different ways we can choose to approach and to explore wines in different settings.
