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ShareI often wonder at how certain elements function in one field and how they are absolutely inconsequential to another. And yet both these things could be tools serving the same end-user. Yes, that's confusing, even for me; allow me to elucidate. My point of disagreement lies in the way things are decided in the world of wines. Food, too, has a similar hangover but less than wines do. I am talking about critics and how much they can influence the future of a wine. It's just bloody ridiculous!
In all fairness, I can't remember the last time I didn't do something because someone who I may or may not know told me they didn't enjoy it. Going by that logic, I would probably have never gotten to Disneyworld (it turned out to be a disappointment nonetheless but at least I found out for myself!). And so it is with most other fields and walks of life -- movies, restaurants, fashion, art, and even technology -- I take none of them to be binding and final.More often than not, I have found my views contradictory to whatever was suggested by the reporter...oops! I mean critic.
So, why then, I ask the world, do we seem to attach so much importance to wine critiques? Technology is the one field which is perhaps the most quantifiable of all to be reviewed and hence, when done by a skilled and learned professional, is very useful; but with all things esoteric, and relative, and most of all, personal, how can someone else's say become our pledge of allegiance?
I know I am stepping on toes, egos and what not; yet, I persist. I propagate this notion even at the risk of losing my readership (which, barring my editor, would leave us with the wholesome figure of two people, at best):scrap the critics, do your own thing. What makes wine so difficult to decide for others is this: there are too many of them and then, there are equally, too many of us. To match the right wine to the right person is a permutation exercise for centuries, by when the person in question would have long died and lost all sensation of taste and the wine too would have gone a bit off. Hence, to think what one person likes should be our mantra for a madly good time, is balderdash. I mean, will you buy clothes that I wear? Why then, would anyone want to stick to what an old bloke sitting across the world thinks about a wine made in yet another part of the globe? I tell you, shrinking the world should still be considered a deadly form of mind-numbing voodoo.
I have tasted the same wine at different points of the day, at different times in my life, and in different settings, moods and company and never has the wine been the same as another time. Each time I have found new nuances, new aromas and tactile sensations and at the same time, also discovered previously unknown flaws (which perhaps didn't show up later at another session). Having a glass of wine is like hanging out with a friend -- you never know what mood she'll be in and how the evening will go. What you do know is that you will adapt to make the best of it. Well, folks, wine ain't much different. It's more about the mood than it ever was or has been about the food! Remember this: it is perhaps the only time that a critic is telling the truth!
The writer is asommelier.
