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Trust your pal
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Often times in life we tend to get lazy with our instincts and take too much credence in what others think. We love to follow others leads, look at fashion, cars, diets, foods and the list goes on. But, in the world of wine this becomes most evident. In wine we have “critics” who tell us what wines to buy based on their scores. Robert Parker says “This is a 95 point wine” everyone goes out and buys it. Then if you are asked if you liked it, your natural tendency is to say “Yes, it’s a highly scored wine by Robert Parker”. If he likes it you’d be a fool to contradict him and potentially sound stupid.
So, today we are going to discuss trusting your Palate, or Pal. The wine world is almost by design meant to be confusing so they can control what people buy. You have a handful of blowhards that think they know wine and spout out scores and opinions to drive traffic. What most people don’t know is that most of these “critics” are either paid off by larger wineries or the magazines they write for have paid for advertising, thereby inducing better scores. It’s all about money…ever wonder why the “consumer alerts” on TV are never about the station advertisers? They would never risk losing an advertiser, so they avoid any negative stories about them. But I digress, sorry.
Critics have palates and they score based on what THEY like, not what they think most people will like. Assigning a score or number to something that is purely subjective and free flowing, is a contradiction in its self. How much different is an 89 point wine from a 90 point wine? Whose palate is so good that they can discern a 1% difference? No one, it’s all just a shell game.
Scores don’t take price in consideration either. What is better? A $85 bottle of wine that scored a 95, or a $15 bottle of wine that scored an 89? You’ll probably enjoy the $15 bottle a whole lot more as you think of all the money you saved for a really nice bottle of wine.
With all this said, it really comes down to just a couple of factors.
First, try lots of different types of wines. How can you have a “favorite” if you’ve only had a few to compare? Your palate will change over time, and what you like now may not be what you will like in 6 months. The more wine you drink and sample different varietals, the more you will educate and train your palate on what you really like and what you don’t.
Second, trust your Palate. What you like is what you like. Don’t let price drive your decisions, but rather choose wines that look interesting or sound different. Gary Vaynerchuk, of Wine Library TV says, “I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”
Choose wines based on what flavor experience you are looking for that specific event or dinner. Do you want something light, crisp and fresh, or are you looking for something full bodied, rich and bold? If you like a $10 bottle of wine, that is fine. In blind tastings, they have proven that price is not a factor in quality. They find that lower price wines will perform just as well or better at times, than the higher priced brands.
There are no rules in wine, forget the red wine = red meats, whites = salad and seafood. Enjoy what tastes good to you and have fun doing it. I like to blaze my own trails and make my own decisions on what is right for me, you do the same. Just trust your pal.
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