Does Tasting A Lot Of Wine Make You A Snob By Default?

We are considering making an appearance at this year's NSLC Port of Wines Festival which is featuring the wines of Italy.  It really is the most wonderful time of the year.  However, should we decide to attend, it will be a vastly different experience from previous years.  Lots of sip/spit/dump....and while that makes us sad in a lot of different ways we will undoubtedly have a better tasting experience and our babysitter and child will also appreciate that.

It brings up an interesting question.

We have sampled a good number of different wines over the last few years (especially at this festival).  Many bottles, grape varieties, regions, countries and on it goes.  We don't consider ourselves wine snobs by any stretch of the imagination but we have begun to develop certain, shall we say, preferences.  These preferences are not really a price equation but more a quality equation.  We have been kinder than most to some wines but we feel like there are some things that trend on our palates.  Take for instance the Mencia we had earlier in the week.  We love the grape and how it is expressed in the Bierzo region of Spain.  This week we had one from a different region and honestly felt....meh.

Meh?  Really?  Is that where we are now?  Are we that specific in our tasting?

All at once, we say yes indeed and no not at all.  Yes, because frankly when you taste a lot of wines, you start to know what you like more than others.  Then again, No, we can't get to a place where the joy of tasting wine becomes a chore or over-complicated.  When we go to these wine tasting events we need to rely on our tastebuds to tell us the truth but be open-minded.  Is the wine interesting or is it run of the mill?  Where the taste preference begins and the wine snob takes over really comes down to attitude.  We have always given the wines and producers the benefit of the doubt.  They were trying their best with the grapes that God gave them in the region they were grown in.  Some wines are made with a higher level of quality but at the end of it we need to be honest about whether or not a wine speaks to us.  If that makes us wine snobs by default, then so be it.

Here's to a great Port of Wines Festival....you may see us there.

Keep on tasting!

Chris & Shannon