WestUniversity
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2017
- Messages
- 717
The bigger flavors I can taste, such as pepper or oak. Some of the other crazy things people can taste are lost on me...
Hints of light weight motor oils with a resonant Cough Syrup note.
Boone's Farm would bring back memories of sneaking out of the dorm and woodstock and wearing bell bottoms and madras clothing . Those memories are worth buying a bottle but just looking at it for nostalgia but never drinking it because it tastes awful.Very nice Strawberry essence with a clean citrus like finish.
I have learned so much from this forum, using the hints here. I just searched the Web for more info on this Night Train, found a site comparing Night Train, Thunderbird, and Cisco. I only heard of Thunderbird before this thread, now I learned of two more.
Here are the connoisseurs' notes on these awe-inspiring fortified wines.
"The Night Train runs only one route: sober to stupid with no round trip tickets available, and a strong likelihood of a train wreck along the way."
"Often, people on a Cisco binge end up curled into a fetal ball, shuddering and muttering paranoid rants... The FTC forced them to drop their marketing slogan, "Takes You by Surprise," even though it was entirely accurate"
"If you like to smell your hand after pumping gas, look no further than Thunderbird. As you drink on, the bird soars higher while you sink lower... WARNING: This light yellow liquid turns your lips and mouth black! A mysterious chemical reaction makes you look like you've been chewing on hearty clumps of charcoal."
My oh my! How to choose? You don't. A well-stocked bar must have all three.
"Spicy raspberry? You're a genius, Johnson!"
With dinner, we had a Ravenswood Zinfandel that had MOUTHWATERING flavors of spicy ripe raspberry, cherry, and boysenberry, according to the label.
Does anyone really taste those things, or do they just make them up?
... I don't worry so much about the nuanced flavors of a wine, just whether I enjoy it or not. I've had some bargain wines that were amazing, and expensive wines that did not impress. Still, I think I would rather have two bottles of average wine than one bottle of exceptional wine.
I often pick up a vanilla taste with Merlot (or was it Cabernet?). It kind of surprised me actually, as I thought all those flavor terms were nonsense. I can also pick up the oak flavor in some wines.
I don't eat many berries anyway, so I don't know that I would recognize those flavors even if I tasted them.
I do think some flavors are more pronounced depending on what you eat with them, such as cheeses or chocolates. My wife and I did a wine tasting in the Willamette Valley wine region and it was amazing how different chocolates brought out unique flavors in each wine. Of course, many of the chocolates cost almost as much as the wine.
I don't worry so much about the nuanced flavors of a wine, just whether I enjoy it or not. I've had some bargain wines that were amazing, and expensive wines that did not impress. Still, I think I would rather have two bottles of average wine than one bottle of exceptional wine.
Any vanilla you pick up is a result of the degree of toasting/roast of the oak barrel. The profiles of toast, light to dark are vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, toast, coffee, mocha, leather, and tar. Those profiles are all there in different quantities, some perceptible to some, others not. And believe me, 90% of the time, I can tell whether it is American Oak or French Oak, Hungarian Oak.. The same profiles are in liquors such as bourbon, whiskey, whisky, tequila and others, but those barrels are usually charred, and the barrel heads toasted.
Good summary.
For completeness, here is another breakdown of wood-derived flavors:
Oak-derived flavors:
Toast-derived flavors:
- Earthy (ash, mushroom, shoe box, wet cardboard, musty, leather)
- Herbaceous (weedy, dill, mown hay, menthol, grass, tobacco)
- Woody (planky, cedar, sawdust, pencil shavings, sappy, green, pine, tar, resin)
- Astringent (harsh, chewy, bitter, angular, tannic, drying)
- Spicy (clove, cinnamon, coconut, vanilla)
- Sweet (brown sugar, bourbon, cotton candy, chocolate, maple syrup, butterscotch, hot fudge, caramel, molasses, honey, toffee, soy)
- Creamy (vanilla, cream soda, marshmallow, lactic, butter)
- Yeasty (popcorn, baked bread, bread stick, cookie dough)
- Nutty (hazelnut, walnut, almond, peanut butter, coconut)
- Roasted (cedar, graham cracker, toasted bread, coffee, mocha, cereal)
- Smoky (barbecue, grilled meat, bacon, sweet smoke, burnt sugar)
- Spicy (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, licorice, anise)
Yes, I hear you laughing out there, but these are actual flavor descriptors used by many professionals in the wine/beer industry.
Wait 'til we tell 'em about the yeast created flavors! Or style and temperature of fermentation!
Any vanilla you pick up is a result of the degree of toasting/roast of the oak barrel. The profiles of toast, light to dark are vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, toast, coffee, mocha, leather, and tar. Those profiles are all there in different quantities, some perceptible to some, others not. And believe me, 90% of the time, I can tell whether it is American Oak or French Oak, Hungarian Oak.. The same profiles are in liquors such as bourbon, whiskey, whisky, tequila and others, but those barrels are usually charred, and the barrel heads toasted.
As with your experience with chocolate, the same goes with other foods. A local restaurant gave a wine dinner with 5 courses, serving a white wine with each course. An admitted wine snob, or just an educated consumer of wine, I was amazed that they served the same wine with 4 courses, and the wine tasted different at each course.
For those of you who imbibe in bourbons or whiskey,whisky try adding a tablespoon of unsweetened tea to the glass. It will bring out more of the different nuances of the spirit, courtesy of the WSJ article a few years back.
Tell us the joke, and I will tell you where I bought that bottle of wine.I’m reminded of the old joke involving an Avon saleslady and an elevator...
Tell us the joke, and I will tell you where I bought that bottle of wine.