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So for years I have listened to the knowledgeable discuss how they can smell/taste various fruits and flavours in wines, not once understanding what the hell they are yapping on about. I enjoy wine, I enjoy going to tastings and cellar doors for the wines, I like trying different wines and we buy and drink lots of the ones we like. Not once have I EVER been able to say I distinctly identify a particular fruit in a wines bouquet.
Till last night, drinking a Tahuna sauvignon blanc from Marlborough in NZ, I drink this stuff like lolly water, there is always 3-4 bottles in the fridge and for the very first time I could smell and taste strawberries in the wine. It was astonishing!
The only explanation I can think of is my taste buds are recovering from 30 years of smoking, it has only taken a decade!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I used to be more a wine person - my Brits colleagues slowly converted me into a beer person now 
dev
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: I could smell and taste strawberries in the wine
Mycroft Holmes wrote: 3-4 bottles in the fridge
if (fridge.Bottles.Count == 0)
{
Explanation.Complete();
}
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If the fridge is empty I'm not going to be able to read the results anyway, nor would I care.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I love wine. Like you, I've been to wine tastings and cellar doors. I've also done a wine tasting courses and dated an oenologist.
It is my belief that the wine tasting vocabulary describes something completely different to the normal tastes associated with those words.
The best experience I had of this was at the wine tasting course. We were presented with 6 glasses of similar wines, Chardonnay one week, Sav Blanc the next, etc.
Being able to compare similar wines allows you to discern the subtle similarities and differences between them. When the instructor says that the first three have a certain characteristic, and the second three don't, you can learn to identify that difference. Wine experts may call that 'gooseberry', but it's not the same as actual gooseberries.
I've not tried the Tahuna sav blanc - I'll have to keep an eye out for it. NZ Sav Blancs are awesome, my favourites: Huia, The Ned, Church Road, Oyster Bay, Nautilis and for something different try Toi Toi sparkling Sav Blanc.
Cheers
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NeverJustHere wrote: Huia, The Ned, Church Road, Oyster Bay, Nautilis
All of which have passed the pallet, here in Singapore wine is so expensive I can't afford to quaff the ones I really want to but the Tahuna is the one currently priced right. It used to be Kim Crawford.
My tasting discernment to date has always been I like that, or thats too acidic/tanin/oaked or any of the other gross differences, never have I identified an individual fruit before. It will be interesting over the next few days to see if it persists!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Ah, Singapore. It's been a long time since I've been there. I do remember the ridiculous taxes on alcohol though.
Still, it's the only place I've seen where people would regularly buy mixed drinks by the jug. Yep, a jug of Vodka and Orange, a jug of Gin and Tonic, or a jug of Bourbon and Dry.
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Struth...
On first reading I read it as ... "and dated an oncologist."
Went and re-filled the glass, nosed it and noted a hint of goon sack and a faint hint of cardboard wafting from the rim of the glass.
I also think that it had a hint of Grape about it.
Not so bad for a crispy dry though...
re-read your post and realised that it was oenologist and not oncologist.
Felt relieved in some way. There must be about 6 or seven titles for this occupation and I have never heard of this one before.
So I have added this word to the things that I have learnt today. Thanks NeverJustHere.
I am also going to look out for the Great Tuhuna. Sounds good.
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Oncologist - can you imagine. Coming home at the end of the day.
Me: Hi honey, how was your day.
Her: Great. Met lots of new people. They've got cancer.
Me: Can you cure them?
Her: Nope. How was your day?
Me: SOME ELEPHANT TOOK MY RED STAPLER
Her: Relax, or you'll have a heart attack
Me: THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE STUDIED CARDIOLOGY
Nope, wouldn't work.
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Very Funny Reply...
I especially like the "SOME ELEPHANT TOOK MY RED STAPLER"
It would make a good CP signature
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: 3-4 bottles in the fridge
Assuming it's a not a wine fridge, then that's why you can't taste anything. Cold temporarily masks taste and excess cold might have longer term undesirable effects. The fridge vibrations might damage some components of the wine, though it's not a well understtood area so might be total doodah! A sauvignon blanc can possibly be stored at fridge temperatures but is better stored up around 8-12 deg C and served at the higher end of that range.
Think of lager, tastes better super chilled? That's 'cos the colder it is the less you can taste and lager tastes awful, ever accidentally taken a slug of warm Fosters or Bud? It hasn't gone bad, it tasted bad to start with then the bad taste was hidden by chilling. Warm English ale FTW!
Buy a wine cooler, drinking at the rate you suggest it'll be worth the cost, and there'll be space in the fridge for pretentious sounding nibbles to go with the wine.
M
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It is stored short term in the fridge, long term in a white wine fridge for the good stuff and yes there is a red wine fridge as well, the Tahuna does not make it into the wine fridge but is drunk reasonably chilled not bloody frozen. You have to use a wine fridge here it turns to vinegar very rapidly otherwise.
As for warm English beer (yech), that cannot be drunk at tropics room temperature, it's either lager or nothing in the beer stakes thankfully.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: it's either lager or nothing
Tiger, Tiger, burning bright...
Been there, done that, been kicked out of too many bars to prove it. 
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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English ale from a brewery rathrt thgan a mass producer (i.e. one of the Interbrew brands), or properly brewed European lagers and beers (not 1664 etc.), would do well in a red (or possibly a white) wine fridge and they actually taste of something other than cold, which whilst refreshing is the same as drinking good wine and not tasting anything specific.
If you've enjoyed tasting a wine for the first time then try a English summer ale (like Summer Lightning) which were created for lager drinkers as an easy switching drink, they are refreshing, can be served chilled (white wine temps) and don't have the stronger tastes of classical english ales. Once accustomed to drinking beer that tastes of something folk tend to edge towards stronger (taste) ales, English pale ale types (IPA, India Pale Ale) and then on to either hoppier pale ales or darker ales (often sweeter in taste due to higher unfermented sugar). Good darker ales to try might be Old Peculiar, Fullers ESB, Directors all of which are probably better served at red wine fridge temps.
You might be pleasantly surprised...
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Wine tasting is utter nonsense and pure snobbery. A panel of wine experts were given five glasses of white wine that had red coloured added to it. Not a single one of them noticed!
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FYI the colour has no taste...
It's almost impossible (if you don't know a wine upfront) to tell its color while drinking in a blind taste.
If it's full of chardonnay you can assume it's a white, if full of pinot gris you can assume it's red but for an arrangement it's very unlikely you can tell with accuracy.
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Oh I agree with you, that is why I was so astonished to differentiate the flavour for the first time in 40 years of enjoying wine, to me it is either nice or not nice I can barely tell the difference between some varietals.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: I can barely tell the difference between some varietals
Whilst the new world producers have taught the French a thing or two in high levels of commercial success by producing wine people like drinking rather than exactly what their great great great great grandfather did it's also led to a sort of mono-culture in taste when it gets 'too' commercial - make it taste like a high selling brand -or- make it tase ok but nothing particular, sort of pleasantly bland, that attracts the highest possible customer base... That's the advantage the French have kept, love it or loathe it, it ain't bland, though parts of thhe French industry have gone down the commerce first route soi it's becoming hard to pick what you actually want. C'est la vie.
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On a recent road trip through Spain I was pleasantly surprised how big the Temperillo wines are, I always considered them rather thin and bland. Turns out that is Australian Temperillo, Rioja wines are quite different. I loved them!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Life is like a box of chocolates
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: my taste buds are recovering from 30 years of smoking
I smoked for 22+ years. I quit about 7 years ago. Food has never tasted better. It did take me about 2 years to get over the chronic coughing.
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