Ever think your palate is in de-evolution?

I believe there’s a fairly logical and predictable course to palate evolution with respect to wine. I’m not prepared to argue it to the death, but I’m inclined to believe it’s there.
At some point you tired of overripe stuff that was trendy for a while, disavowed Parker and reviews in general and moved toward lower brix and more rocks. Show of hands?
Personally I wound up in the Loire and was for years happy in my wine geekdom fully expecting that in a few more years I’d likely be drinking mostly white. Cuz that’s how it goes. (Oh yes it does. I’m out on a limb, but only a little.)
And instead, lately, I’m finding that much of the time when I open a focused, blue fruited, angular, tart whatever, I’m kinda, just kinda, wishing I had something from Stagecoach instead.
And I’m not pleased about it.
De-evolution?

No. I just don’t think that good, non-spoofed, non-unctous wines translate into “focused, blue fruited, angular, tart”. As with anything, there are good Loire/whatever wines and wines that aren’t so good. But then, I never liked the syrupy crap that was so popular a decade ago…

I think what most people consider as palate evolution is nothing more than people exploring and finding what they like - and what most people find that they like when they’re into wine and drink it regularly are wines with character, balance and complexity. The big, chewy, over the top stuff is fine when you have wine once a week etc… it’s tiring for most people if you drink wine several times a week.

that’s part of the grandeur about the world of wine. Diff’rent Strokes for Diff’rent Fokes. It’s not about a “de-evolution” of ones palate - if you are a beer drinker - do you drink nothing but IPA? Do you only watch certain types of movies? That’d be rather boring, no? How about spirits - do you drink nothing but Scotch bourbon? There is no sense in limiting oneself to enjoying only one road in the world of wine.

You can drink your Loire and be happy - yet still have the hankering for a big ole slutty Napa Cab or a blatantly thick and sweet Pinot from the RRV. I’m sure the Loire Valley will not kick you out of the house for cheating. :slight_smile:

That’s exactly what I was going to say, in essence. You can like Mozart and Metallica, burgers and Beluga. Personally I go in cycles, sometimes feeling European, sometimes Cali…no biggie. Drink and enjoy what you feel like at the time, and don’t second guess your tastes too much.

Great post Nate and exactly how I feel about wine! Be careful though, if too many people agree on this point; neener We would have nothing to argue about and the Board might close down! [stirthepothal.gif]
[rofl.gif]

Cheers!
Marshall [wink.gif]

I’m all over the place, but have had a fairly predictable palate evolution, despite starting at White Burgs :slight_smile:

Yes, I still like the occasionally slutty Aussie and others though

Nope. You’re all philistines. And I’m no damned better evidently. A bitter pill.

If anything I think the de-evolving palates are the ones that refuse to drink nothing BUT a particular wine, and think that you are broken as a person for not agreeing with them. We have a customer at our store that drops about 1K each month on nothing but Cali Chards, always 2-3 specific producers. I’m thankful for his business, but would hate to party with him.

Of course I wouldn’t argue with anything any of you said. You should drink what you want when you want it and variety is the spice of life. Great. But palate shift has always been pretty interesting to me and last night I happened not to especially like what was in my glass. Probably just a wine on a certain night, but what the hell, I wondered if I could get any traction or empathy on it.

I still like hot fudge sundaes too, I suppose. But I wouldn’t want to go back to looking for them in my Merlot.