{"id":928,"date":"2018-04-30T14:09:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=928"},"modified":"2018-04-30T14:09:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:09:03","slug":"tired-taste-budsor-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=928","title":{"rendered":"Tired Taste Buds\u2026or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, we were on an extended wine tasting trip to Paso Robles.\u00a0 We had been to most of the wineries we knew we wanted to visit, including Tablas Creek<\/a>, Justin and Adelaida.\u00a0 We had made some nice discoveries, such as Ecluse<\/a> and Caliza<\/a>.\u00a0 We were fairly intent and the tasting was intense, because the hot growing conditions in the Paso Robles area lead to some very high alcohol content in the wines produced there.\u00a0 In fact, one winery’s wines were topping out at 16.5 percent. Lucie was constantly complaining about the high level of alcohol in Central Coast wines.<\/p>\n

On the last day of our visit, we were just driving along Route 46 stopping rather randomly at wineries along the way.\u00a0 We had never heard of any of them, so the best that could happen was a new discovery and the worst was learning what to avoid in the future.\u00a0 But that afternoon just seemed to go from worse to worst.<\/p>\n

Now, Power Tasting\u2019s philosophy is not to speak ill of wineries but rather to praise the ones that we believe deserve it, and we\u2019re about the experience, not the wines themselves.\u00a0 That day, we finally arrived at a winery where the experience was mixed.\u00a0 The tasting room was tastefully decorated with antiques and the bar was almost unobtrusive in a space that felt like a visit to Grandma\u2019s.\u00a0 Unfortunately we entered just behind a family with two little boys who, as little boys will, wanted to touch everything.\u00a0 The servers were in a tizzy, trying to pour wine while preventing destruction of the knick-knacks.\u00a0\u00a0 So we have to admit that conditions weren\u2019t optimal for enjoying what was in our glasses.\u00a0 That said, the wine was simply awful.\u00a0 We paid our respects and left quickly, hoping not to hear anything break as we departed.<\/p>\n

In the parking lot, we looked at each other and said \u201cMaybe we ought to stop.\u00a0 Our taste buds might just be worn out.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps all we had sipped in the past few days had caught up to us and we simply couldn\u2019t differentiate good wine from bad any longer.\u00a0 There was, however, one winery that we had deliberately left for last because we knew their wines well and liked them very much.\u00a0 This winery was Turley Wine Cellars (http:\/\/www.turleywinecellars.com<\/a>), famous for their Zinfandels.\u00a0 We gave ourselves one last try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Turley\u2019s tasting room in Templeton, near Paso Robles.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of pairingswineandfood.com<\/em><\/p>\n

We entered in Turley\u2019s cool, woody tasting room and sipped some Zins.\u00a0 Hosannah!\u00a0 They were delicious.\u00a0 Our taste buds hadn\u2019t died after all.<\/p>\n

There are a few lessons to be learned from this experience.\u00a0 First of all, trust your taste.\u00a0 Your tongue won\u2019t actually shrivel up and die.\u00a0 If you like a wine you\u2019re tasting, it\u2019s good wine\u2026at least for you.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t like it, it\u2019s not good.\u00a0 (Of course, if you\u2019re sipping Lafitte Rothschild and you don\u2019t like it, either it\u2019s corked or you need to re-calibrate your taste buds.)<\/p>\n

Another lesson is about the purpose of wine tasting.\u00a0 It\u2019s a joy to taste a famously great wine and maybe even more so to find a wine you\u2019ve never heard of that blows you away.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also important to find out what you don\u2019t like, to educate your mouth.<\/p>\n

And finally, within the bounds of reason and safety, don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like the wine you\u2019re tasting now, the next one may be the one that makes your whole wine tasting trip worthwhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, we were on an extended wine tasting trip to Paso Robles.\u00a0 We had been to most of the wineries we knew we wanted to visit, including Tablas Creek, Justin and Adelaida.\u00a0 We had made some nice discoveries, such as Ecluse and Caliza.\u00a0 We were fairly intent and the tasting was intense, … Continue reading Tired Taste Buds\u2026or Not<\/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":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}