|
Posted to alt.food.wine
|
|
|
Are we wine snobs?
In article . com>,
says...
>
>
>Jose wrote:
>> > Do people need to 'learn' about
>> > chicken? About steak?
>>
>> Well, yes, actually. Ever eaten chicken made by somebody who could
>> stand to learn about chicken?? More to the point, cooks =do= have to
>> learn about spices and herbs and seasonings and accompaniments.
>>
>> > then why do it with
>> > wine?
>>
>> Because there are few kinds of chicken, a few more kinds of meat, but
>> lots of kinds of wine. I bet you could list a hundred different kinds
>> of wine from Italy alone, off the top of your head.
>>
>> > It is only because Americans have grown up up in a
>> > Puritanical society, in which allcohol is viewed as an evil, that there
>> > is any reason to be unfamiliar with wine drinking.
>>
>> Probably true. In Europe people learn about wine too, they just start
>> younger, and by the time they are of salary age, they already know
>> enough. Americans aren't that lucky, and we have to make up for it.
>>
>> > Talking heads on infomercials tell us...
>>
>> That part is all about money. We don't need makeup either, but girls
>> are taught (falsely) that they look ugly without them.
>>
>> > People are told everything except
>> > that they have a brain of their own
>>
>> Where's the profit in that kind of revolutionary thinking? 
>>
>> > You don't need to be 'educated' about wine
>>
>> Well, if you already know about wine, that is true. If you don't, then
>> that is false.
>
>What I mean is we don't need to be 'educated' about wine, in an
>elaborate, ritualized, manner. We don't need to be 'educated' about
>walking, though we do need to 'learn' how to walk. We need to learn
>about wine the way we learn to walk, through experience, not through
>pretentious 'classes' and reviews. You didn't take a class to learn how
>to walk, did you?
You are, again, partially correct. Actually, most folk would benefit from
learning how to walk properly, with good posture, and equal weighting of their
feet, plus how to chose proper shoes. But I digress from wine, which is, after
all, why we are here.
If one finds a class, a book, or a discussion "pretentious," they should walk
(properly) away from it.
One should face every day as a "student." There is far too much to be learned
to miss just one day. I feel that way about wine. I have not sampled it all. I
have not visited every wine producing region. I do not even know some of the
major producers, but I am always ready to learn - to be "educated" about wine.
Hunt
|