Contextual influence on the appreciation of wine

[Luke W]

Last night I opened a bottle of 1998 Lindemans St George Cab Sav and decanted it. I put the bottle somewhere else and slowly started sipping it (It was quite lovely with all sorts of beautiful flavours and aromas reminiscent to a great Coonawarra cab sav). A mate dropped in and I opened another bottle (not wanting to share the St George with him as he's not a big red wine drinker). The wine I opened was a quaffer and he enjoyed a glass of that before he left. My wife came home soon after and I poured her a glass of the St George which she proceeded to drink without comment. She would have seen the quaffer open and possibly assumed that the wine we were drinking was that (should I encourage my wife to actually taste the better wines that I open or should I always open a quaffer when we drink and palm it off on her - God help my liver)? Anyway I don't think that she found the wine as stunning as I did as the evening passed without comment on the wine.

How much of our enjoyment of wine is contextual? I'd like to hear some stories of other's experiences about the surprises/tribulations of context with their wines. I sometimes wonder why I often enjoy cheap sparklings (e.g., last week-end sitting at the beach overlooking Keppel Bay on a day of still beauty), and it may be that these often provide a context of fun or frivolity....

Cheers

Luke

[dave vino]

We've had a similar discussion in our wine group. With the blind vs. non-Blind tasting. Some people are big believers of tasting a wine totally on it's merits, others prefer to know what they are drinking so they can taste the wine in context. (age, history, story behind it).

Myself I'm willing to give a wine the 'benefit of the doubt' if I know what it is and it's reputation. I'll let it sit in the glass for a bit longer, if I know how the vintage was I'll also take that into account, or I'll be a bit more analytical of the wine if it's a young pup destined for 20 years of cellaring (like a Riddoch/Balnaves Tally), I'll also give it more respect if it's a 30 year old wine that's drinking like a 10y.o one.

Then there is also the company you are in, the conversations you're having the different characteristics people find in wine, that make you go 'ah yes now I can see what you mean', which add to enjoyment of the wine. Then there is the geographical element, sipping a Rockford BP in your rented self contained cottage in the Barossa watching the sun go down makes for a pretty special wine experience. (and if you're wondering it was here http://www.stayz.com.au/18646 )

[Luke W]

Davo

Can imagine sipping on old Rockford there - it looks magical - lucky bastard

[Roscoe]

Context has an enormous impact. I think we all recognise that, but I suspect we tend to underestimate its importance. When you consider it is estimated that well under 50% of what we "see" comes from direct information produced by light falling on our retina one starts to realise that perception is not a short journey from sensory stimulus.

[Michael McNally]

In my view wine is completely contextual. The same wine tastes vastly different with different food, at different temperatures (both ambient and of the wine), in different visual and audial settings, from different glassware, enjoying a different mood (ambient and internal) and with different people.

Some of the best wine experiences I have had have not been when I am really paying attention to the detail of the wine, but when it is being enjoyed with good food and good friends in a good setting.

Getting everything right with a wine is like putting the final dab of paint on a landscape.

Time for another offline!

Cheers

Michael

[dingozegan]

There's no doubt one's impression of a wine is highly contextual. But I do think that, with increasing familiarly with styles, honing of one's analytical tasting "skills", general experience of focusing attention on a wine's attributes when drinking it, and tasting/drinking in a variety of environments and under a variety of conditions; the subjectivity can be reduced (albiet never near entirely removed). IMO, the benefits of such "efforts" include improved ability to select appropriate wine given the mood/company/food/occassion/etc, increased ability to understand other's appreciation of wine styles you don't like (or vice versa), ability to better judge whether you will enjoy a wine given you tasted it in a certain environment (e.g. were you easier/harder on it because you tasted it at cellar door?)...

[markg]

Great topic and yes.. it is very contextual.

The elusiveness of re-capturing a fantastic wine experience is one of wines major fascinations and that which draws us in and to each other, over and over again.