I've acquired a taste for wine.

>>8451800
You idiot, of course it would be easy. They are all distinct styles.

Try comparing say, a shiraz from one country to another.

My friend popped down to the liquor store and bought the wine. I sat at home watching the Critic.

I didn't see the labels until after I tasted the wine.

I remember back when a Mouton Cadet and a Bouchard Aines et Fils tasted exactly the same to me. Now I can tell if I'm drinking MC or BAF if poured one in my glass on a random night without telling me.

It's as obvious as Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.

>>8451802
> Try comparing say, a shiraz from one country to another.
I didn't want to make it that hard on myself.

I'm not sure I can differentiate Australian from South African Shiraz yet. They're both peppery, red fruit, medium body, high-mid tannins.

Where would I start trying to tell the difference unless I started drinking both and picking up on where they diverge?

The last time I had South African (two oceans 2011) Shiraz, I think it may have tasted thinner/waterier than what I'd expect from the usual Australian Shirazes, so there might be that.

>>8451804
I wrote a bot that buys mixed dozens of red wine from the local delivery store for under $40 a bottle. I put a request in that all the labels be tapped over.

It took a few weeks, but eventually I was picking every single bottle down to vineyard, grapes (including blend percentages), months in which oak and vintage by smell alone.

It's really easy, anyone can do it, especially if you're a non-smoker.

>>8451813
This.

Wine is one of the more fun acquired tastes. When you get it, you really get it. All it takes is tasting and drinking. It's amazing how much variety we've gotten out of a single species of vine-berry. It's almost like dog breeds.

Except it's olfactory instead of visual.

>>8451812
It's easier to start with cool climate/warm climate differences. Be careful with mass-produced export stuff, they source grapes from all over the place and can be very inconsistent. Drink single vineyard bottles if you can, they tend to be more expensive, but it's easier to taste differences between regions this way. Also, not sure about RSA, but in AUS, if a grape variety is under I think 15% it doesn't have to be named on the label. Sometimes vineyards will add a little of this or that to achieve a desired flavour, so take mind of this.

You know you're all just forming these taste undertones in your head before you taste it, right?

>>8451812
get yourself a hold on some Jaspers Hill Shiraz. Best Australian shiraz I would say.

>>8451818
Fair point.

>>8451831
The power of suggestion is at work to a certain extent; just as it is with any product. What makes someone choose one brand over another?

I've always been aware of this, not just with wine, but with anything we purchase; the branding tells you what to think.

This doesn't mean all wine tastes the same. There are very many characteristics that you can pick out from different varietals (subspecies), climate conditions, producers, and harvests of wine grapes. Each of these individual factors may actually be relatively minor and inoccous, but all of these extenuating circumstances add up and give you distinct products, that are unmistakable from one another.

It's not just the variety of grape, or the climate, or the oak barrels, or the philosophy of a particular producer and their facilities, or the harvest; it's when all of those things coalesce, that makes one alcoholic grape juice so different than the other.

Now do it with whites. I was all about red wine but then I discovered grassy and minerally whites and now i'm all about those Vermentino/Albarina/Liore Sauv Blancs/Frulianos/Gruner Vietleners etc. that I actually prefer white with most foods.

>>8451906
>Albarina
Albariño rather

>>8451843
>>8451831
Blind tastes are a thing yeah?
There's obvious differences between wine types, locations and even season.
Generally the cheaper the wine the more ambiguous chemical tastes appear.

I was lucky enough to be raised in a house with a fully stocked cellar. For example 2002 was a good year in the Australian Hunter region but 1999 was great for South Australia. A New Zealand, specifically Marlborough, sauv blanc will generally be drier than Australian Sauvs. The grapes used in the Sarboughough Sauv in 2013 were so good that from 2014 they were used only in small batches.

Nothing wrong with a good port.

Can you faggots please stop pretending you can actually taste differences in wine? You're almost as bad as the Whiskey fags. It's pretentious and forced. You try to fill the void in your pathetic lives by fabricating these meme hobbies. It's ethanol - it tastes like shit and will always taste like shit.

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>>8452347