12/4 Interested in killing time in Napa wine country to do some wine
tasting. Can someone recommend a good winery there? Thanks.
\_ Go to Sonoma. The Napa wine places are touristy dumps. Paying to
taste wine is a nazi war crime. -John
\_ We don't all have wineries pouring tastes of free
trockenberenauslese in our backyard.
\_ Doesn't wine cost money to make? It would make sense for
people to pay something to taste it, wouldn't it?
\_ It doesn't cost that much to make, but if there's a
market for it then the winery is losing the revenue they
could have had by selling it.
\_ Ask yourself the same question about web browsers.
\_ Ask yourself the same question about sampling ice cream at an ice
cream parlor.
\_ Civilized societies realize that wine tasting is a
prerequisite to getting you to buy wine. It is an investment
a vineyard makes as a kind of risk. You may try x kinds of
wine before you like one enough to buy a couple of bottles
of it. Imagine if dealerships charged you to test drive cars
or if you had to pay a buck every time you tried on a piece
of clothing... the whole "pay to taste" abomination comes
from changing wine tasting from a part of wine buying into
some sort weird-ass activity all by itself. It is about as
king lame as it gets. YMMV. -John
\_ Mmhmm. And all the places I buy food at let me taste
before I buy too. By the way, your analogies are false
because wine is consumable and cars and clothing are
at least semi-durable.
\_ I don't know how it works in the US, but showroom
cars here (the ones they use for test driving) are
usually sold every year here at a decent knock-off.
Furthermore, when I buy food, I either know what it
tastes like or don't care about the couple of bucks
I'd lose on it. Compare that to the ~$2k my gf and
I spend on wine every year--the guys we buy from know
that the loss from opening some bottles (which they can
then keep as samples for 2-3 days with good stoppers)
is less than the cost of losing my custom if they were
dicks about letting me taste it. That said, I can see
why the Napa guys charge, now that it's a tourist
activity. -John
\_ Moron, most grocery stores *do* have free samples
to taste when they get new stuff.
\_ No, they don't. But granted, food stores do
generally have a much larger product selection
than vineyards, so it would be logistically more
difficult.
\_ Foodstuffs of a given brand/type tend to have a
more consistent flavor & quality. And good food
stores very often do let you try out new items
or perishables. -John
\_ Napa wineries used to have free tasting but the change
is based (IMO) both on milking tourism AND the fact that
freeloader winetasting tours became too popular in
the Bay Area. Yes, it sucks. I blame people.
\_ I know a life of crime led me to this sorry fate...
but I blame society. Society made me what I am.
\_ There are lots of great wineries in both Napa and Sonoma. Yes,
you will have to pay at some. Wineries cannot pour $120 bottles
of wine to drunk tourists all day long for free. Usually you
can taste free if you are a serious drinker (e.g. make an
appointment or sometimes ask the right questions while tasting
and they will waive the fee). You should ask yourself if you
want an 'experience' or if you want great wine. The two are
often, but not always, exclusive. A good start would be for you
to name some wines/wineries that you like or are familiar with.
\_ I really don't know much about wines. I'm doing this to
learn more about it. It's kind of like the Lonely Planet vs.
Rick Steves approach to traveling. Lonely Planet is more of
a reference guide where if you've been the Europe before,
it would help you whereas Rick Steves simply plans everything
out for you assuming you know nothing. Everything I've found
on the Internet has resembled the Lonely Planet approach.
I guess I need something more dumbed down. I'm interested
more in the "experience" but would rather drink decent wines.
\_ Instead of the internet, check out some good books. At the
SF main library, many years ago, I found this incredibly
helpful book (it was kinda old even then) and it explained
about the names of the grapes, the types of woods used in
the barrels, etc. Actually, you could probably find out more
just by talking to the people pouring the wine at the
tastings (especially the older ppl).
\_ Why bother, it all tastes like crap anyway. It's all just
foo-foo bullshit that wineries make up so they can
differentiate and charge for what basically is a commodity
product. Like you are ever going to taste the difference
between a '57 v. a '58 Chardonay, give me a break.
\- there is a dramatic different between $5 and a $100
bottle of wine. that's pretty much objective. whether
the difference is worth $90, is a subjective Q, as is
whether you'd prefer a coke or water to the $100 bottle.
\_ The person above obviously doesn't like wine. People
*can* tell the difference. A sommelier is tested on
it. If you cannot tell the differences between a white
grand cru from Burgundy, a fine California chardonnay,
and jug wine made from 'chenin blanc' then your palate
is dead. To the OP: you are going to have to make some
choice here even if it is just red/white.
\_ With practice, I'm sure I could develop the ability
to differentiate between gasolines made at different
refineries around the world with different processes
in different years by smell also. It would still
taste and smell like shit. Whenever I meet an American
wine snob they turn out to be a pretentious asshole.
\_ So you don't like wine. BFD. I don't know why
you have to be so hateful about it. I don't
like men fucking my ass and yet if it works
for you then great.
\_ I've spent plenty of time around guys who like
ass-fucking, but none of them have ever said
the equivalent of, say, "If you cannot tell the
differences between a white grand cru from
Burgundy, a fine California chardonnay, and jug
wine made from 'chenin blanc' then your palate is
dead." I guess the equivalent would be to
imply that my cock doesn't really work since
I know nothing of the finer points of ass-fucking,
with the implication that I'm also uncultured
because of my ass fucking deficit. Yet I have
never heard that sort of elitist horseshit from
any of the ass fuckers I have ever known. Fuck
all wine snobs.
\_ You sound like someone in need of a good
ass fucking.
\_ That's not an elitist comment. Anyone with
with working tastebuds can tell the difference
between those wines, although I wouldn't
expect them to be able to tell which is which.
PP's comment, translated to condiments would
be "If you can't tell the difference between
ketchup, mustard and mayonaise, your palate is
dead." You seem to have a big chip on your
shoulder. Certainly there are big wine snobs
but just because someone knows and likes wine
that does not make them an elitist snob. -!pp
\_ I never said that liking wine or even
being an expert on wine made someone
an elitist snob. I said I hate wine snobs.
Past threads have shown that the motd
is full of dickhead culture snobs on
several subjects, including wine. I saw
an opportunity to tell them to fuck
off and I took it.
\_ I asked a question not long ago about
authentic Italian restaurants and you
(the real dickhead) accuse me of
being a culture snob. What I didn't
tell you was that I was asking for
my friends who are Italian who are
sick of "Italian restaurants" in
this country who want something
closer to their homeland. Instead
of going around accusing others of
being culture snobs, why don't you
provide some useful info.
\_ Well, I guess you've outed me as
a misanthrope. I loathe humanity,
and unless you're an AI that means
you. So fuck off.
\_ You know, from all the wine folk I've
met, it seems they're just about the
nicest people around. I've met far
more arrogant elitist snobs in the
sciences, business, and computers than
in enology.
\_ Correct usage of esoteric technical
word: +2 points. |
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