Never heard of this before

just when you think you are old enough to have heard everything, someone comes up with something like this:

http://www.redwinebuzz.com/winesooth/20 ... -the-rain/

what think we? or thee? I do know that sometimes - especially in summer in air conditioned buildings but at other times too - ALL wines smell to me like plaster being sand papered. i can get rid of this by going out of doors with each sample so it isn't a huge problem; but.... that is the closest i get to getting into this idea.

Methinks he thinks too much.

Methinks he is so obsessed by minutiae and the need to be analytic to the extreme that perhaps he should seal himself in a hermetic/hermitic chamber with carefully maintained barometric pressure so he can absolutely maintain the conditions for tasting wine in a consistent manner.

Perhaps then we can lock the door from the outside, and leave him to his ponderings.

I hope that, in his metrics and his need to control his environment he remembers to actually enjoy the wine.

[David M. Bueker]

For some of the conditions he cites I can see his point. It's hard to taste wine or even enjoy it non-critically in 100 degree heat. It's hard to enjoy anything in 100 degree heat! But rainy weather? I have heard tell of wines tasting differently in different environments, but I chalk most of it up to people looking for excuses.

As to your issue with airconditioning David - I can understand it, especially if the A/C has not been properly cleaned/serviced. They frequently produce musty or dusty smells.

I'm not convinced that the reason people might write the tasting note "rain water" is because the air is full of that smell (i.e., petrichor), as I think people genuinely find that some wines do smell like this. But the author's general point about being aware of multiple conditions is completely valid. Personally, rainfall wouldn't stop me from drinking (or tasting), but if you are analysing a wine in any way whatsoever (even if that just means "will I buy this again?"), it's certainly useful to be mindful of conditions that might influences your perception. (The author of the article appears to be writing TNs for a public audience so this issue does have more import than it otherwise might.) That doesn't mean you're so analytical about it you don't enjoy it! In fact, I'd argue that adjusting your conditions can help you enjoy the wine more! A simple change of glassware, perhaps?

I have heard tell of wines tasting differently in different environments, but I chalk most of it up to people looking for excuses

Excuses? Maybe some people genuinely feel they're not on form due to the conditions (e.g. the 100 degree F heat you mentioned), i.e. they can't experience or appreciate the wine fully due to the conditions. Taking the above example of glassware, I'm amazed at how much the shape of the glass has an impact on people's perception of the aromas in the same wine. It can help one's appreciation (and enjoyment) of a wine a lot just to change a glass.

Most conditions probably wouldn't stop most of us tasting/drinking, but it can certainly be useful to bear tasting conditions in mind, and I'd certainly endevour not to criticise someone for a "drinking condition preference".

I think it's pretty intuitive that the best way to assess how you really feel about a wine is to have multiple bottles, at different times, in different conditions, blind and non-blind... Assuming you're so inclined, it's a bit like being able to answer the question "in our/my current mood and under the current conditions, what music would we/I most like to listen to, what would `suit the mood'?" Being able to answer that question takes experience (of different types/styles of music/wine), attention to detail, and skill, and can certainly enhance your enjoyment and appreciation of something.

FWIW, I've always thought that wine tastes different when sipped in a cool barrel room that smells of wine as compared to a more sterile tasting room. Of course, some of that may be the pure psychological lift that comes from being in a big room full of resting wine. But still...

I hear you, Mike!
Further, I've been in the "environment in the cellar where the winemaker makes their blending and bottling decisions", and it seems to me that it's usually pretty mundane. "Cellar" is usually better described as "barn" or "shed" here in California! (I'll even ignore the bad grammar of number disagreement in the quote. )
David Coffaro, Rod Berglund, David Cooper (Yoakim Bridge), Chris Loxton -- to name a few winemakers I know personally, make their decisions right where you can see what's going on. (Ok, David Cooper does it on the other side of an open doorway - but he'll show you!)
I'll agree that outdoors in 100 degree heat isn't the ideal place to make a great assessment of wine. Yet, even there, you can do a relative assessment of this vs. that, right then and there, and the one you like better in poor tasting conditions is likely to be the one you'll like better in ideal conditions (whatever "ideal" may be.)

John

Absolutely right!

I was drunk one night and found myself standing out in the middle of hurricane force winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. And you know what, I thought at the time that this was exerting a subtle influence on my wine, a lovely champagne from Pommery---I mean outside of the fact that it was blowing it right out of the glass---and it didn't taste at all like it did when I was in the caveau in Reims.

Funniest thing.

That whole barometric pressure thing is just profound. Also the mind-blasting incandescence of a Texas sun, I've found, can really make the old Napa Cabernet taste...I don't know...somehow, just, different. You know?

Wow, this gives me an idea for a whole new product line. Enviro-taste wine tasting chambers with carefully controlled barometric pressure and humidity. I could run ads in the Spec and W.E. and if you order now I'll even throw in one of those magic gadgets that ages the wine 10 years instantly. Three different sizes to fit home, retail space or winery.

Who's in?

Regards,

John

Wow, this gives me an idea for a whole new product line. Enviro-taste wine tasting chambers with carefully controlled barometric pressure and humidity. I could run ads in the Spec and W.E. and if you order now I'll even throw in one of those magic gadgets that ages the wine 10 years instantly. Three different sizes to fit home, retail space or winery.

Who's in?

Regards,

John

That sounds great, John.

I've got a great idea for funding too!

All of us that have travelled internationally over the last several years can pool our various spare change that we always end up with from the various and sundry countries we've visited. It's never enough for the change people at the airports, and the banks just laugh at you. But if we put them into a huge pool---which we could do on this very forum (I'm sure Robin and Jenise and David would love to do it!) and I bet we could get plenty of startup money for this.

[David M. Bueker]

I like it. Enviro-Taste: that some great bass!

This theory seems no more wacky to me than the belief of biodynamic adepts that phases of the moon have to be taken into account when tasting wine.

BD may seem a bit far-fetched. True. But what I am discussing is the consequence of known and demonstrated chemical and physical phenomena interacting in a smaller and a more appreciable scale than the concepts of BD.

I've got a great idea for funding too!

All of us that have travelled internationally over the last several years can pool our various spare change that we always end up with from the various and sundry countries we've visited. It's never enough for the change people at the airports, and the banks just laugh at you. But if we put them into a huge pool---which we could do on this very forum (I'm sure Robin and Jenise and David would love to do it!) and I bet we could get plenty of startup money for this.

LOL, great idea, Hoke, I can definitely kick in my share of coins. Not sure the old Lira, Pesetas, etc. will be worth much but I have lots of Euro coins

When did you leave the Bay Area? I haven't been active on the boards for a couple years.

Regards,

John

Agreed that setting has its role in wine tasting but there is a certain point at which trying to control our environment for the purposes of wine tasting because a bit silly.

To go in the opposite direction though, I am now involving myself in a series of tastings to determine the differences in tastings held in my own tasting room and in the first class cabin of an airplane flying at 30,000 feet. The only "control" is that there will be no one in the cabin other than myself and one stewardess and she will use neither perfume nor makeup.
We do know that the palate reacts differently to both food and drink at high (or, I suppose, very low altitudes). This will be one man's mini-step into exploration. And yes, should NASA invite me to do a tasting in deep space, I would gladly accept the invitation.

Best
Rogov

Hey Hoke I 've got a bundle of Soles de Oro, currency from Peru 25 years approx years ago. They wouldn't let us buy anything in the Lima airport whhen we were leaving. Wanted dollars only, couldn't spend the damn things. I think at that time they devalued their currency almost every day. My chance to cash them in, OH goody.

When did you leave the Bay Area? I haven't been active on the boards for a couple years.

Last fall, John. Left my corporate employ and moved up to my wife's home place, Portland.

Hey, Rogov: this is your opportunity, if you haven't already become a member, of joining that Mile High Club.

Just make sure that, according to international safety rules, the cockpit door is securely fastened so you won't be interrupted.

You know, we might have to follow up on this currency gathering scheme. Could turn into a gold mine...or at least, an aluminum mine.

[Jenise]

BD may seem a bit far-fetched. True. But what I am discussing is the consequence of known and demonstrated chemical and physical phenomena interacting in a smaller and a more appreciable scale than the concepts of BD.

Arthur, welcome to our forum!

To go in the opposite direction though, I am now involving myself in a series of tastings to determine the differences in tastings held in my own tasting room and in the first class cabin of an airplane flying at 30,000 feet. The only "control" is that there will be no one in the cabin other than myself and one stewardess and she will use neither perfume nor makeup.

So you are buying all the seats in a first class cabin, and prearranging the flight crew? Impressive.