Bad news for audiophiles?

There is an upside to all of this: drinking lots of cheap wine will make one's cheap system sound great.

All the best,
Nonoise

Some wine tasters, like audiophiles, have a golden tongue as opposed to ears. I'm a novice at best and seldom get it when it comes to the complexities of tastes. When I do, it's an epiphany of sorts as I marvel at the many and varied tastes and flavors that come and go with a good wine.

It doesn't have to be expensive. Some wine makers don't make the wine but take remaining stock and bottle it in different states and blends and are only allowed to name the clone and not the vineyard from where it came. These are sold at a large discount and it's hit and miss but you can get something for under $20 a bottle that will simply amaze. Some of these are sold under a store or restaurant name (Trader Joes, etc.).

In the limited span that I've been tasting, once you go up in price and are careful in your due diligence, a more costly wine does taste better than a less costly one.
Unlike audio, your nose and taste buds are nothing like your ears and yes, one can be fooled, but not often.

All the best,
Nonoise

Orpheus, your analogy is (wine) spot on. :-)

Stringreen, yes, a lessor wine can taste better than a higher priced one. Case in point, at the last tasting I went to, the presenter who imports the wine is a Frenchman who's steeped in wine from an early age. His whole life is devoted to it. He now lives stateside and had some wonderful wines he personally selected and none of them were over $50/ bottle. 7 were under $20/bottle (-15% off for the tasting) and all were simply great.

He showed a map of France and all of the regions selected were off the radar, so to speak. None were famous or highly regarded: what he termed "off the beaten path". If not told I would have guessed 4-5 times the price. Easily. He explained that there are many like them out there that never make it stateside, let alone a lot of parts of Europe.

The sad part is, some of these small producers are disappearing in a way you wouldn't guess. Two of them that had been along for a long time and consistently put out fantastic wine were bought wholesale from someone in China and all of the wine now goes there (probably obscenely marked up). He just smiled a little forlornly and said it's all about supply and demand.

All the best,
Nonoise

Zd542, No, I missed that one. The only upside would be to return the unit for a refund and keep the wine. Of the two, at least one would satisfy.

All the best,
Nonoise

I've been told that the vineyards keep the trunk and roots of the older vines and graft the same or even different varietals atop. Some of these older trunks can be quite massive and go deep into the soil. So as Al pointed out, the soil characteristics, climate, and the intact delivery system all add up to an almost guaranteed return on investment. Quality can almost be taken for granted.

Nice work, if you can get it.

All the best,
Nonoise