The Ultimate Wine vs Beer Thread

[zoebisch01]

It's like anything, without a broadened experience one can never learn to appreciate the differences and complexities of a food or beverage. You gauge it all on your experience.

Although my experience with Wine is much narrower than some and I cannot pick up on some of the subtleties that someone with much more experience than myself would, I can still differentiate for myself what I feel is a good Wine vs. a crap Wine. At some point in time the band of my experience may move out to exclude ones that at some point I felt were good. This has certainly been the case for me in both Beer and Wine.

As for Terroir and Beer, I really don't think this has hit us yet because it is all inclusive meaning that all the ingredients are local. The trend with growing hops in the backyard is a start for this. Actually it is a reversion to how things were done traditionally and not a new concept, it's just trendy. For the most part your ingredients did not travel 1,000 miles from all directions to be assembled in one location. It is a much easier concept with Wine as it is locally grown grapes and water.



...actually it kind of funny because I was thinking about how the hops being grown in various regions is going to change things. And it will change the hops. Genetics will only carry you so far, but it is the combination of genetics, climate, soil, etc that will inevitably lead to differences (possibly great differences) in the Hop varieties I grow out back and those grown say in the Yakima Valley, or in Hallertau even if I get the Rhizomes from there. I had a first hand experience with this last year. My neighbor grew Vidalia Onions and I grew Walla Walla Sweet Onions. I can tell you they were light years apart in sweetness. His 'Vidalia' (no discredit to him, he is a much more experienced gardener than I am) were hot and lacked sweetness. This is in part culture, but very much so what needs to be understood is that the low Sulphur content in Vidalia, GA is greatly responsible for creating the Vidalia Onion's reputation.

 

[landhoney]

If you're saying "better" is subjective and "complex" is objective, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. Complex is a completely subjective term, just like "better" or "best" is. Now, for the amount of flavors in each beverage, this again is subjective; it depends much on the person doing the tasting. My original point was that the different styles of beer were easier to differentiate than the different types of wine for most people.

Completely Subjective?
Bud vs. Rochefort 8 - whch is more complex? Objectively you'd have to say the Roch, you're going to get more unique flavors from it than a Budweiser.
Suppose someone not versed in wine tastes a bottle of 1982 Latour, they say it tastes like wine. Then they go through a wine appreciation class for three months of tasting, learning,etc. Now they taste cherry, currant, vanilla, etc. etc. Were those flavors/complexity there before, of course its the same bottle of wine. The fact that they didn't pick up on them the first time doesn't change the fact that they are there. I may taste it as cherry and you as currant, but those flavors are still 'objectively' there.

 

[Evan!]

Completely Subjective?
Bud vs. Rochefort 8 - whch is more complex? Objectively you'd have to say the Roch, you're going to get more unique flavors from it than a Budweiser.
Suppose someone not versed in wine tastes a bottle of 1982 Latour, they say it tastes like wine. Then they go through a wine appreciation class for three months of tasting, learning,etc. Now they taste cherry, currant, vanilla, etc. etc. Were those flavors/complexity there before, of course its the same bottle of wine. The fact that they didn't pick up on them the first time doesn't change the fact that they are there. I may taste it as cherry and you as currant, but those flavors are still 'objectively' there.

Yeah, the flavors are objectively there, but there is certainly a modicum of subjectivity involved, as no amount of classes or "palate-training" can turn someone with genetically pedestrian taste buds into a "supertaster".

 

[McKBrew]

When I sample beer, I try to pick out individual flavors. I'll think I've done a good job, then I'll go read a review on beer advocate. What I perceived as malty, with hop aroma and some fruitniness will be described by someone else as having cherry, date, tobacco flavors, etc... It's interesting how one person can pick up on so much more than another, and I would bet the same is true with wine.

I never cared for wine, but now that I've started brewing and tasting aged beers with alot of wine characteristics I could see myself liking it. I refuse to buy/drink wine now for the simple fact that I would rather keep spending large amounts of money on high-end beers. It's a PITA to decide what beers to buy at a specialty beer store adding wine (where wide varieties are more readily availbable) to the equation would be too much for me.

 

[landhoney]

as no amount of classes or "palate-training" can turn someone with genetically pedestrian taste buds into a "supertaster".

My new favorite insult to throw: "Your taste buds are very pedestrian" :fro:

EAC enough for you guys?

 

[pjj2ba]

My new favorite insult to throw: "Your taste buds are very pedestrian" :fro:

EAC enough for you guys?

Not pedestrian, plebian. Plebian adds a little bit more snobbishness to the insult. Ya can't get too fancy though. You want the person to know they've been insulted.

 

[blacklab]

 

[bigben]

I can't drink wine by itself. I have to be eating something with it.

Beer on the other hand....great by itself and great with food.

 

[farmbrewernw]

I started taking a wine making class at my local community college just to broaden my view of fermentation a few months back. Let me first say I too believe beer is way better than wine but I didn't take this bias to the class, I only went because hey I like to be well rounded. Holy crap wine people can be total snobs. We got into hour long discussions about some grape variety that has subtle differentiations in taste depending on what sort of dinosaur sh!@ on the soil 5 million years ago. I couldn't believe the things I heard people say they could taste in the wines they had drank, I'm pretty sure wine drinkers start to make this stuff up. After 3 classes I promptly got a refund on the class and used the money to buy my first keg setup. I guess the short of it is, beer has more up from differences and it's so easy to make changes that you notice. Beer is far more complex than wine in my opinion, but try telling that to a wine snob.