Not chenin blanc

Last week, having finally made it to Majestic Wine, went back to Sauvignon Blanc from the cheapo Chenin Blanc mentioned at reference 1. The occasion being spotting some bottles from a place called Cloudy Bay in New Zealand, with lots of packaging and collateral proclaiming it to be the very best that New Zealand can offer. A world class tipple at the budget price of a little more than £20 a bottle, that is to say rather more than I usually pay.

We tried it last night. First sip was rather odd, leading me to wonder at the wisdom of paying what for me is quite a lot without tasting. Maybe buying just one bottle to start with, rather than the six I actually bought.

Second sip was rather better and by the time that I had drunk my permitted glass I had decided that it was actually rather good.

All of which led me to wonder this morning at the process by which one comes to decide that this or that wine is rather good. One has to learn to discriminate, with discrimination being a pleasure in its own right, never mind what it is that one is discriminating about. Maybe one wants complexity, something for the brain to busy itself on, something to bang on about, with common or garden alcoholic sweetness being a bit crude for such a purpose, despite alcohol and sugar being the ingredients which matter. Might just as well do wacky backy - which at least has the virtue of being cheap. Then one wants to think that one's money has been well spent, so the brain will do some fancy footwork to make it so. Or one wants to be able to agree with the important wine buff on telly - or, contrariwise, one wants to think that one knows better than the next chap, that one has pulled off a stroke in the wine world. Stolen a march on all those other plonkers. No doubt I shall dream up some more angles as the day goes forward.

So should one buy a couple of hours with a shrink to get all this tied down, tied down and committed to a spreadsheet for future reference?

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/posts.html.