Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Disappointment

Back in 1995 I was attending a master class on French wines. On the night dedicated to Bordeaux, we blindly tasted 6 reds from different appellations. The last one, supposedly the best, was Château Margaux 1990, the perfect wine according to, well, everybody: 3 glasses, 5 stars, 100 points, you name it! While I couldn't find any particular flaws in it, I wasn't carried away either. We discussed a lot about it and for days, weeks, months I felt somewhat miserable from the experience. I wasn't able to understand and appreciate what the experts considered the paradigm of perfection. (Yeah, at the time I still had the reverential fear for the gurus).

It took me a while to get over it and learn a great lesson: there are no perfect wines and there are no absolute experts. A tasting experience is influenced by more than the intrinsic qualities (and flaws) of a wine: feelings, emotions, companions, environment, everything can affect the results (in a sense, Luca Maroni is perfectly right).

So, my recommendation is: listen to anybody, challenge everything and judge by yourself. You are the ultimate reason for a wonderful experience.

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