The Wine Knows

Lettie Teague of Food & Wine mag has written a delicious article on how she created a counterfeit '82 Mouton to fool snooty wine people. The wine used: Andrew Will from Washington's Vashon Island.

(Thanks to the Seattle P-I's Devouring Seattle blog for the tip.)

I've not had the pleasure of tasting many First Growths, and I've been generally unimpressed with those I have tried. That's likely more of a function of lack of experience than lack of quality. The best older wines I've tried were Ports.

Back to the article in question: While it's fun to fool people who think they know a lot about wine, I think it's also a bit unfair to put someone in the frame of mind that they are about to taste a great wine. When you do not taste blind, you have preconceived notions about how a wine should taste. I have no doubt I'd be fooled by someone allegedly serving me an '82 Mouton - because I've never tasted the wine. I undoubtedly would fawn over the wine because I would be expected to. Without a frame of reference, I'd have no experience with which to compare it.

This also brings out the importance of tasting blind. Remove all expectations and you can fairly consider a wine for its qualities, not its price, heritage or hype.