{"id":3298,"date":"2026-05-21T18:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3298"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:30:36","slug":"how-to-disagree-about-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3298","title":{"rendered":"How to Disagree About Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Let\u2019s assume that you\u2019re going wine tasting with another person, someone whose taste in wine you respect.&nbsp; You\u2019re fond of that person, maybe that person is your partner in life.&nbsp; Most of the time you agree about the quality of the wine you drink, but on occasion in a winery\u2019s tasting room, you disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"293\" src=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3299\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-3.jpg 440w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Now as friends and lovers, you probably don\u2019t need advice from <em>Power Tasting<\/em> about how to disagree amiably.&nbsp; But there are some aspects of disagreements that are unique to wine tasting.&nbsp; Disagreements can be learning experiences for all those involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Is the wine bad?<\/strong> We\u2019re not talking about the relative quality of the wine the two of you might be tasting.&nbsp; We\u2019re suggesting that a wine may have turned or is corked.&nbsp; Corked wine, in particular, is a common problem, more so than is generally recognized, although it seems it occurs in fewer bottles in recent years.&nbsp; One may recognize the problem and the other not, so that might be the first question to consider if one of you is immediately turned off by a sip of wine because you feel that wine is corked.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What if one of you likes a wine, and the other doesn\u2019t.<\/strong>&nbsp; This is where respect for the other\u2019s taste comes into play.&nbsp; It may simply be a stylistic difference.&nbsp; One likes oaky, buttery California Chardonnays.&nbsp; The other prefers classic French Chablis, made from the same grape but tasting very different.&nbsp; The best idea is to recognize the underlying difference in a particular wine, while recognizing that there are some unoaked Chardonnays from California and some very fruity Chablis from Burgundy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What does it taste like?<\/strong>&nbsp; You both lift a glass of, say, Zinfandel.&nbsp; One tastes cherries when sipping it.&nbsp; The other is sure that the dominant flavor is dark chocolate.&nbsp; It\u2019s amazing how suggestions alter perceptions.&nbsp; All of a sudden, when they mention their impressions, the cherries come through to one and the chocolate to the other. &nbsp;You both realize that what you smell is chocolate-covered cherries.&nbsp; Now, that\u2019s a bit of an exaggeration but the point is valid.&nbsp; Consider what the other is smelling and tasting and your senses may begin to respond in the same way.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What does the winemaker say?<\/strong>&nbsp; One of the niceties of wine is that you can often read the winemaker\u2019s opinion about aromas and tastes on the back of a bottle.&nbsp; (You can also find other people\u2019s opinions on some restaurants\u2019 lists and in critics\u2019 commentary.&nbsp; But we\u2019re talking about what you can do in a tasting room.)&nbsp; To be honest, we often find some of those comments to be ridiculous.&nbsp; Every time we read about road tar or pencil shavings, we grimace.&nbsp; But if one of you tastes plums and the other doesn\u2019t, the winemaker can be a tie-breaker.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>De gustibus non disputandem est<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong>&nbsp; The ancient Romans had it right: There\u2019s no arguing taste. &nbsp;&nbsp;And it may be that one person is actually incapable of tasting what the other does.&nbsp; For example, the smell of white pepper is a known characteristic of Syrah.&nbsp; But according to Decanter magazine, more than 20% of the population don\u2019t have the taste receptors to detect the chemical that imparts that peppery taste.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As we have said before, disagreements about wine tasting are often a learning experience which we should take advantage of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s assume that you\u2019re going wine tasting with another person, someone whose taste in wine you respect.&nbsp; You\u2019re fond of that person, maybe that person is your partner in life.&nbsp; Most of the time you agree about the quality of the wine you drink, but on occasion in a winery\u2019s tasting room, you disagree. Now &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3298\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Disagree About Wine<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3300,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions\/3300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}