
The Neuroscience of Wine - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/33/attraction/the-neuroscience-of-wine
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skewart
It's kind of funny that such a more-or-less linear scale of quality based on
price and critics' ratings prevails in the minds of so many wine drinkers. I
love wine, and I've definitely fallen into this trap before too. Now that I
think about it, wine is a little like mountain biking. There are bad trails,
and really amazing trails, and trails that are kind of meh. It would be absurd
to obsess over only riding singletrack rated 90 or above by a professional
mountain biker.

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Mikeb85
Yup. There are many fantastic 'cheaper' wines, and even many French winemakers
are now producing non-traditional, cheery wines meant to be consumed
immediately.

I know I'm not always in the mood for a 'big' wine, with all the fanfare and
ceremony. Sometimes something light and easy drinking hits the spot.

~~~
danieltillett
I have a rather soft spot for _beaujolais nouveau_. Hard to spend much money
on this and if the vintage is OK then rather yum.

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mchahn
I've always had a theory that everyone would hate the taste of wine and other
alcohol if it didn't give us a buzz. In other words, our brains make us like
it to get more.

I base this on my early hatred of the taste and the later liking. I know this
isn't much evidence but I think it could possibly be true.

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danieltillett
This theory doesn’t really explain why more expensive wine tastes so much
better.

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elthran
2 options spring to mind for me 1) Placebo effect - you know it's expensive,
so your mind makes it taste better 2) It's expensive /because/ it tastes
better

edit:

Although, if we run with the hypothesis it only tastes nice because of the
alcohol content - alcoholic drinks are usually taxed according to their proof
(in UK at the very least), therefore a wine with higher % will be more
expensive than a weaker wine, all other things being equal.

~~~
danieltillett
I tend to think that hypothesis 2 is the more likely. I like good wine, but I
love it when I get a good wine for a low price. I get far more pleasure out of
drinking good cheap wines than I do out of drinking good expensive wines.

Also pointing towards hypothesis 2 is that unreliable wine regions are on
average cheaper than consistent regions (all other things being equal). The
best value wines in my experience are wines of a good vintage from a marginal
region. The history of the region prevents a producer being able to charge a
premium when they actually have a great product.

~~~
runamok
At the end of the day it's all farming. Granted one region can have more
consistent rainfall and temperature but there is still a pretty wide variance.
Even in the same area one winemaker may be more talented and know when to
pick, etc.

I think certain areas are very overhyped and thus receive a price premium. I
tend to enjoy the general flavor of Paso Robles more than Napa for instance
even though the 2nd is usually much more expensive.

At the end of the day making wine is still very high touch and manual and I am
happy to support the industry. I do miss the days not so long ago when wine
tasting was at most $10. Last weekend I went to a place in Napa where it was
$40 and they only had one wine to taste! O.o

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justifier
i worked at a wine distributer on the upper east side in manhattan in the late
aughties

you could see the changes happening in real time

the industry was moving toward what they called 'priced to drink'

gone were the days of hoarding wine for years to be opened in fanfare, now
buyers wanted bottles you could drink the same night you bought it

the best wine i have ever had was when i was working as a bus boy at a fine
dining restaurant

one of my tables was a regular who always payed the corking fee and brought in
six bottles of his own.. our sommelier loved him

as i was clearing his table he stopped me and offered me a sip of his last
bottle on the table

what i tasted was unlike any wine i had ever tried

to say it was 'good' would be untrue, the wine tasted like dirt, or more
specifically white granite crushed into a fine dust

i could taste the color of the stone in the earth that the vine was grown

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kough
More or less on topic - anyone have a favorite $5-10 bottle of wine? There
must be some oenophiles here willing to make a recommendation to a broke
college student.

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samcheng
The classic from my own broke college days was the various "two buck Chuck"
store-brand wine labels from Trader Joe's.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine)

It makes for great fun during blind wine tastings, too!

~~~
kough
I'm very familiar with the good Mr. Shaw at this point; looking for something
"fancier". Great rec though, it has unparalleled value.

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samcheng
I also went through a Riesling phase (various blue-colored bottles from
Germany, mostly). Bottles were in the $10 range, varied a bit in acidity and
fruit, but were generally quite drinkable.

"Fancy" is a dangerous preference in wine, though! Wine does get better in the
$20-$30 range, because some wines cost more to produce. (oak, late harvest,
estate-grown, old vines, some varietals, etc.)

~~~
elthran
Second Riesling - if you like them sweeter, I'd throw out Liebfraumilch, Hock
and Gewurtzraminer too.

I'll also mention you want European Riesling - the bottles from New
Zealand/Australia can tend to have a slight petrol taste to them.

~~~
draven
There are also some non-sweet Gewurztraminer, a German colleague once brought
us a bottle, it was great.

In Alsace we also have Edelzwicker. Those are "vins d'assemblage", ie blended
wine. They can be both great and cheap. You'll have to sample a few of them as
quality and taste can vary quite a lot.

One of my favorite is the Klevener d'Heiligenstein, there's a Wikipedia
article about it in English (Wikipedia never cease to amaze me !):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klevener_de_Heiligenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klevener_de_Heiligenstein)

I always go get a few bottles when I visit my family, at a local producer who
has an organic winery. The price varies depending on several factors but the
cheapest ones are about 5-6€ a bottle and they're great.

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grimoald
I'm not a wine drinker, but when I listen to people drinking, I noticed some
frequently occurring patterns, for example:

> normally, I drink only […] wine but I somehow like this one, too.

> The label says this one is very […], but I actually find it rather […]

> I like [bottle A]. > I like [bottle B]. > I like [bottle C].

Personally, when I hear things like this and read articles like [1] I can't
help but take wine tasting for complete BS. Then again, I don't get anything
out of that, except that I won't have a nice time with friends sipping alcohol
and babbling random stuff.

[1]
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X01...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X01924939)
(Abstract of the abstract: wine tasters can't even distinguish red wine from
white wine by taste or odeur.)

~~~
mbenjaminsmith
I don't think anyone with zero wine experience could tell the difference
between a Burgundy and a Bordeaux. At the same time, I don't think there's
anyone with a normally functioning nose and tongue that couldn't tell the
difference with the right training.

I think people are dismissive of wine because it carries a lot of
socioeconomic baggage. If we were talking about beer, however, I doubt you
would say you couldn't tell the difference between a stout and a pilsner or a
really hoppy IPA and a lambic. Now, if you had never had any of those before,
you'd need to learn the vocabulary and the flavors associated with them. Once
you did you'd easily be able to detect and talk about the differences.

Wine is no different. I imagine that someone pointing out a Bordeaux is either
a Left Bank or Right Bank would either sound like BS or incredibility
pretentious, but understanding what grape varieties dominate those two wine
regions and how they influence the taste makes it pretty easy to tell them
apart.

Understanding wine isn't necessary for enjoying it, but for the most part it
is necessary for being able to buy a wine in a shop or order one in a
restaurant you're going to be happy with. Unfortunately wine is a mine field.
Price and quality are loosely correlated and quality varies greatly from
vineyard to vineyard -- even in the same region. It can also vary from year to
year within the same vineyard.

Unless you're an expert, the best wine is usually curated. Find someone who
has wine as a hobby or find a shop that makes good recommendations and you'll
really start to appreciate wine. There's something about good wine that really
transcends a normal drinking session.

Also, don't be shy about asking a shop for an inexpensive but good wine. In my
experience the people who really know wine will always look for value and will
probably spend less on average than someone who drinks wine to try to impress
people.

