Someone recently posted an article from a few years ago where the author pondered ‘wine rules’ that were okay to break - and it made me wonder if the members of this Board were to write a similar article, what they might include in it that are a bit more ‘geeky’ but still may be considered ‘conventional wisdoms’ by many.
Here’s a few to consider:
Unfiltered wines are better or ‘more reflective of terroir’ than filtered wines
Wines made in a more ‘natural’ way are ‘truer expressions’ of the wines than those that are manipulated
A high scoring wine is one that should continue to evolve over many many years, not one that gives ‘immediate gratification’
Wines over XX% alcohol cannot be ‘balanced’
Pinot Noir is the toughest grape to grow
Wines bottled under screwcap do not ‘breathe’ and therefore never evolve
Manipulation of wine is to be abhorred as an overly modern way to make the wine something it is not, obliterating terroir, typicity, vintage interest. My favored producers’ wine making activities are not manipulation but entirely normal/required steps in the wine making process.
-Lots of new oak ruins a wine
-Only Champagne knows how to do sparkling wines properly
-[Insert whatever curmudgeon rant you want about high ABV]
-Burgundy makes the best Pinot Noir
Nice ones Rodrigo. I’m sensitive to oak flavours and very much don’t prefer them in reds, can tolerate a bit more in whites.
When I first got into wine and I’d open wines too young, I’d get really turned off by the oak and in many cases get rid of any remaining bottles of that wine. Over time I came to understand that lots of new oak CAN be bad, but if the winemaker is using the oak in proportion with what the wine can take, it may make sense. And then of course oak can integrate over time.
Luckily I didn’t dump too many bottles over this. A learning experience no doubt that helped me better understand how wine evolves and how that aligns (or doesn’t) with my palate preferences.
I only buy wine I would drink but not because of how the food will taste. If something calls for like, 1/2 bottle I’ll buy a $8-15 bottle that I’m familiar with. The end result being, I wouldn’t buy a shitty bottle of wine for cooking because most of the time, most of the bottle would go to waste. With the decent drinkable one, 100% of it gets used for cooking and consumption.