Netscape Forum Poll: My tasting skills

Well, I voted average which seems to be an easy way out!!!! Although I figure I have some experience and have written a host of tasting notes over a period of 25 years or so, I still have a lot to learn!! One reason why I seem to like blind tastings eventhough my team here in Edmonton went from #1 to #5 in a recent team challenge!!!

Sometimes writing notes can be a chore and can be repetitive......."red fruits, tannic, good mid-palate, nice balance and so on". Plus its hectic around here at Doris Ranch and one is sometimes not in the mood to evaluate. Horses to feed, coyote to chase off, goodness me life is tough!!!!

[David M. Bueker]

Ok, I admit I was one of hte ones who voted "excellent." I'm a resonably good blind taster, so I gave myself points for that. I also seem to have the capacity to effectively taste a rather large number of wines at an event/dinner/tasting (though that might mark me more as a good spitter...).

Besides all you people being so humble just made me go for it.

I guess I've been tasting wine for going on fifty years now and I don't think either my tasting skill or sense of taste has improved one iota..

Really? Are you exaggerating? No improvement?

Is that because you haven't put my effort/analytical attention into the wine drinking process?

I don't know, Rahsaan. There were times when I could lift more weight, run faster, jump higher etc. and I could do exercises to improve on my native gifts, but my five senses peaked at some point in my early teens and that was that. And I don't know if you can do exercises or get hit by a jolt of electricity which might build more and new synaptic pathways which might increase sensitivity to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing.

As I suggest, however, I have learned over the years how better to interpret the messages which my senses send to my brain and how to associate these stimuli with other stimuli and experiences. My ability to articulate such has improved as well, although I am not as articulate as many and do not have as large a magazine of epithets as most. To my mind, this makes me a better wine geek, but not necessarily a better taster.

In short, my tasting abilities have not improved, but, and perhaps debatably, my foundation of facts, and my analytical, interpretive, and communications skills have gotten better. The latter, however, do not in my estimation make me a better taster.

I found this an interesting poll because I'm completely paranoid that my tasting skills are up to very little, and that wine is going to turn out to be a hobby of limited reward as a result, particularly for the finer bottles.

I did a lot of lab classes at university which included a variety of "smell tests" of volatile compounds which I'm pretty certain has damaged my sense of smell. I also have a minor sinus problem which leads to one nostril frequently being blocked!

The problem is that comparing your tasting skills with others is such a completely subjective experience. If I want to test my running speed, or strength, or knowledge of a particular subject against others then it's easy to devise a test to do so. Not so with the sense of taste and smell - I mean how do I really know whether these senses are actually better or worse than other people?

My paranoia is exacerbated by my habit of going and checking other peoples tasting notes after I've written my own for a wine. I almost invariably find that they've discovered aspects to the wine that I missed completely - but which I can pick up when I revisit the bottle for another glass.

Is there anything one can actually do - besides practice tasting, which I'm not sure does that much - to improve and sharpen the sense to taste and smell?