Why we like different wines. Aragon tasting 5 Jan 2023

I suppose that I will never say it enough; everyone has their own palate. So many things go into how you taste wine (alcohol) and what you taste. Not only that, but your palate can change, even slightly, during the course of a day. Did you eat before the wine tasting (something that I recommend), what did you eat, did you have coffee that afternoon, or burn your tongue on hot pizza? All of which I have done before a wine tasting. Is your nose partially stopped up? That will definitely alter what you will taste! I have developed a few rules to help decide what wine(s) I pick to talk about from a tasting. This helps keep me as unbiased as possible. You and I might like the same wines, have similar palates, but odds that half of you have completely different tastes. That’s just the science behind the human tongue.Something that you learn going through your Wine Certifications (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust out of London in my case, slightly different than Sommelier training) is how to recognize and differentiate a “good” wine, even if it is not a wine that you like. That way you are able to speak about that Australian Shiraz that you personally didn’t care for, but your audience loved it, and that Shiraz was “correct” in all ways.I also get asked constantly “What was your favorite?” Enjoying and talking about the wines is the best part of wine tastings. Often my answer to that question is not the wine I write about. So when tonight’s Crowd Favorite emerged from the line up, several other tasters could not believe that “that wine” was the one I had chosen to discuss here. “Well,” I answered, “that’s why I developed the rules that govern our Wine of Note or Crowd Favorite," etc., of which I have defined in several previous posts. Tonight’s Crowd Favorite, by a single vote, was Naturalist Sauvignon Blanc 2020 from South Australia. It is only a matter of time before you see this bottle on the Featured Shelf at Fresh Market and Publix, because it will SELL! Vegan Friendly, Gluten Free, made from sustainably grown certified organic grapes. The winery even promotes bees, thus the label, not kidding, and that’s awesome! This Sauvignon Blanc was approachable, easy to drink, not citrusy, not too mineral-ly, with hints of just enough white flowers, stone fruit and faint apple to give you something of an “okay, not bad.” A beginners wine, which we need sometimes. Coming in at around $14, there are very, very few wines like it on the market that do all of that.Wasn’t for you. Yeah, I get it, but many others ended up enjoying it enough to buy it more than any of the other wines at the tasting, and we should be thankful for that! Our differences ensure that we will continue to have the full spectrum of different and ever evolving wines. Some will be bad, yet others will be fantastic! Cheers to disagreeing on “good” wines!