Dan Abel wrote:

> I compare it to eating raw cookie dough. Someone who is a very good
> baker can eat a bit of the raw dough and predict how the cookies will
> taste. If they are lacking in salt or some spice, they can be fixed at
> that point before they are baked. Someone who doesn't bake much, like
> myself, just tries some dough and says, "yuck, why did I do that?". You
> don't serve raw cookie dough to your guests after dinner.
>
> Beaujolais Nouveau is wine that isn't ready to drink yet. Someone who
> knows a lot about wine can drink a little glass and figure out whether
> it will be worth buying once it's ready to drink. They might even
> figure out whether the entire vintage is good or not. Somebody like
> myself tries a little glass and says, "yuck, why did I do that?".

That is not a very accurate analogy. Indeed, a good baker should know if his
cookies are going to be good. The same goes for pie pastry. Some batches you
know from the texture and the way they roll out that they are going to be
good. The baking is the next step.

There are different methods for making wine, and ageing is not like cooking
as a final step. Not all wines are made to be aged. As a rule, white wines
are made to be consumed quickly. They do not benefit from ageing. In fact,
most of them will deteriorate quickly. Only some wines are produced with the
intention of ageing.

There are different ways to make wine, depending on whether it is intended to
be drunk immediately or whether it is intended to be consumed within a year
or two, or if it is intended to go into a cellar. A good wine maker should be
able to determine from the character of the grapes if he should go for the
long life or to make a cheaper product.