NYT continues to be a great venue for marketing your high-end products, including running your own photos. All while providing the thinnest layer of “but not all agree” counterpoints which only strengthen the perception that this is a product for not the riff raff but truly a thing “for those who know.”
i really don’t understand wine or alcohol snobs in general. to me, ingredients and food freshness is so much easier to actually discern and objectively easier to say what food tastes better than arguing over fine minute notes in drinks. a pastry hot out of the oven will taste miles better than one made 4 hours ago and reheated, but it’s pretty hard to find truly fresh baked goods in a lot of places. (donuts especially are amazing less minutes after frying!)
fruit has huge differences in taste depending on the specific variety, where it’s grown, how long ago it was picked, especially stuff like stone fruit or berries. meat, fish, etc also have huge differences in quality and taste.
but maybe i just haven’t had the right glassware :)
> fruit has huge differences in taste depending on the specific variety, where it’s grown, how long ago it was picked, especially stuff like stone fruit or berries.
alcohol is usually a far better solvent than water for the compounds providing those nuances. if you want to enjoy those flavors out of situ, hello alcohol
There is a huge amount of just meh wine and whiskey. The glassware doesn't matter that much IMO.
But certain wines and whiskeys do just sing in exact same way as really good fresh bread, pastry, or a favorite song or piece of art do.
The mechanical reason is, to my mind, interesting. Wine and whiskey are - duh - alcoholic. Alcohol evaporates more readily than water and the majority of our sense of "taste" is actually located in the nose. All the subtlety and complexity in food and drink comes from their fragrances. The alcohol wafts up more of that fragrance more easily. That's why certain alcoholic drinks can hit so disproportionately hard.
Everyone's different but here are some of the wines and whiskeys that sing to me:
- sancerre was my first wine, it's the wine my wife and i drank in central park on some of our first dates. simple, crisp, like green apple. i will almost always buy this on a nice warm day.
- barbaresco was introduced to me by a friend many years after i'd been drinking and enjoying red wines. i love the lightness - like literally it's feels less viscous and more transparent combined with the surprising spicyness and almost effervescence.
- petite sirah is my favorite on a cold day or with a steak. thick, spicy, super tannic
- i will almost always order a yamazaki 12 neat when available, or a hibiki. these two are the whiskeys i would use to introduce anyone to whiskey. so smooth they are sweet, almost caramel in flavor.
- lagavulin "distiller's edition" is an amazing whiskey - smokey, oily but aged in sherry so also sweet.
The self importance really brings out the nuanced self congratulatory notes. People like a thing and want to hype it up in their own way. Look at audiophiles, who use music to listen to their gear. Anybody can hear but few seek to listen to where the weight is
https://archive.ph/sojL4
Solo cup
NYT continues to be a great venue for marketing your high-end products, including running your own photos. All while providing the thinnest layer of “but not all agree” counterpoints which only strengthen the perception that this is a product for not the riff raff but truly a thing “for those who know.”
i really don’t understand wine or alcohol snobs in general. to me, ingredients and food freshness is so much easier to actually discern and objectively easier to say what food tastes better than arguing over fine minute notes in drinks. a pastry hot out of the oven will taste miles better than one made 4 hours ago and reheated, but it’s pretty hard to find truly fresh baked goods in a lot of places. (donuts especially are amazing less minutes after frying!)
fruit has huge differences in taste depending on the specific variety, where it’s grown, how long ago it was picked, especially stuff like stone fruit or berries. meat, fish, etc also have huge differences in quality and taste.
but maybe i just haven’t had the right glassware :)
> fruit has huge differences in taste depending on the specific variety, where it’s grown, how long ago it was picked, especially stuff like stone fruit or berries.
alcohol is usually a far better solvent than water for the compounds providing those nuances. if you want to enjoy those flavors out of situ, hello alcohol
There is a huge amount of just meh wine and whiskey. The glassware doesn't matter that much IMO.
But certain wines and whiskeys do just sing in exact same way as really good fresh bread, pastry, or a favorite song or piece of art do.
The mechanical reason is, to my mind, interesting. Wine and whiskey are - duh - alcoholic. Alcohol evaporates more readily than water and the majority of our sense of "taste" is actually located in the nose. All the subtlety and complexity in food and drink comes from their fragrances. The alcohol wafts up more of that fragrance more easily. That's why certain alcoholic drinks can hit so disproportionately hard.
Everyone's different but here are some of the wines and whiskeys that sing to me:
The self importance really brings out the nuanced self congratulatory notes. People like a thing and want to hype it up in their own way. Look at audiophiles, who use music to listen to their gear. Anybody can hear but few seek to listen to where the weight is
I wonder whether they try do use objective measures at all when designing the glasses or whether it’s all vibes and impossible-to-blind taste tests.