In my many long years dabbling in liquors and beverages of one kind or another, only ONE thing has become eminently clear: that most comments about wine and other drinks are based on fashion and habit. Beer drinkers in England like English beers because that's what they grew up with and were told was great. Beer fashions have come and gone, as have beer brands. Wines are a little more complex than this but not much. I have seen fashions come and go with sweet wines, sherries, hocks, ports, roses, beaujolais, chiantis, and so on and so on. And every single time, some guru or other was telling us that one thing or another was the ONLY thing to drink and everything else was rubbish. I have also seen the decline of a great many regional wines around Europe because the fashionistas and snobs will now ONLY drink cabs or shiraz (and some who really don't know what they are talking about would 'never touch a merlot' !!). China has some delightful VINEGAR beverages - what the heck would our experts make of these ??!! So sad. I have spent many delightful times trying out different wines from different places - many would be what the 'experts' call rubbish but the locals from where the wine was made will drink nothing but (retsinas !?). Let's bring back the joy of variety and the adventure of exploring instead of the snobbery and arrogance of telling the world what it should enjoy. This article simply proves again that wine and beverage enjoyment is dependent on one's attitude to it, the occasion when it is enjoyed, the people and food one is enjoying them with and a host of other issues. I'm sure that snob-value increases the enjoyment for many many people but this has little to do with taste and a right to say something is 'good' or not. The snobs have done a good deal to increase the values of wines and decrease the variety available. Let's hope someone gets up and espouses variety and adventure again sometime.

It should be obious to anyone that the only real valid taste test is a blind taste test. You must not have any pre-conceived notions of what you taste. You cannot offer any stupid rationalization to the contrary. The only way to test the true taste of something is to not know the brand you're tasting. Obvious! Obvious! Obvious! If you don't like the results, you shouldn't be one of the judges.