Mood:
a-okTopic: Scientific Progress...
Not that I wanna keep whining about wine, as it's a tired topic (the subject gets punned-down easily, doesn't it?), but this li'l study from across the pond piqued my interest.
Makes sense, mind you. Part of the problem is that the researchers appeared to use a general pool of wine tasters for the study and not a group of vinophiles (like myself) or bona-fide connasseurs (of which I have neither the disposable income nor the palate to become...)
Just goes to show that the whole cognitive dissonance thing is less a nebulous Freudian academic process and quite real: an almost quantifiable phenomenon (note that they actually scanned the tasters' noggins for regions that lit-up with each sip). This mental process can lead to the ultra-humerous situation of ignorant parties ordering a bottle of pricy, yet ruined, wine at a restaurant and then chatting together about how 'sensual' and 'complex' the 'boquet' is...
...(a friend of mine stumbled upon just such a scene one day upon encoutering a tablefull of friends; with one offered sip her face became so scrunched-up that the sommelier came over and tested the bottle himself: it had, he immediately deduced, turned to vinager. The wine steward apologized to the table, but they were so red-faced that all they really wanted in return was their check...)
I think one quote from the story sums everything up nicely:
"Expectation is a huge part of wine appreciation."
Now, that law supposedly decreases with knowledge and exposure to wine culture, but still: wouldn't you think that, as a rule, this phrase would even apply just a teensy bit to even the highest levels of the wine world?
Eh: Scientific Progress doesn't know, and at the moment it's too busy chugging a $250 cabernet to care...
...at least, Scientific Progress thinks it's a $250 bottle...
Tastes like it, anyway.
