I'm watching Bottle Shock. It seems well made and humorous. But I'm not sure how much "wine culture" I can stand. Do these people really stand around talking about a wine being "oakey" or "wolly"? Or is it an elaborate joke they are pulling on the world?
It also rubs me the wrong way the spectacular importance they attach to wine. Like it's something monumental, transcendental, spiritual. To me, wine is no more important than soda pop or orange juice.
If I really stretch my largesse, I guess it might be similar the other way around. For me, art can be monumental or transcendental, but for some I guess it's just something pretty to have on the wall so it doesn't look so bare.
I believe them. It seems genuine enough. Except of course the blind wine tastings in the bar, they seemed like he was just pulling the wool over their eyes.
ReplyDeleteWine snobs kinda talk like that, but as for growers and producers, I am sure that's real. Despite several trips into the wine country I still haven't been to a winery, but I remember visiting distilleries and they do talk like that.
Eliza has only two small scenes, but she was just wonderful. She was better in "Nobel Son" though.
Hmm, how come there are no good images of Eliza in her S&M costume from Episode 9 of Dollhouse?
Oooh, seems like that's an episode I need to see.
ReplyDelete(I've just updated this post.)
Just found this clip
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVdyWeHuqOE
No, the S&M costume was only a tease during the first couple of minutes, for the rest of the episode she was in tamer attire.
What a tease.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting patiently for the SM community's versions of "Will and Grace" and "The L Word".
You do know Mattel are releasing a Barbie who is being regarded as S&M by the religious ranks. She's actually a comic book character, the Black Canary I believe.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy her hereor
join in the derision here
ROTFL!
ReplyDelete"Filth"... that's too funny. Gawd, these people need to get a life. What planet do they live on, that fishnet stockings is a "problem"?
I don't know about wine, but I saw a show about whiskey. They had these dudes from Scotland do a blind taste test, and they were able to identify the brand each time. The testers even put a bottle of American whiskey in there and they identifed that too. In some kinds of Scotch there definitely is an oak flavor, sometimes overpoweringly so. I'm not a fan of the stuff myself.
ReplyDeleteAs for wine, I have the same attitude toward it that Mark Twain had toward cigars - buy whatever's cheapest.
But what does "oakey" mean?? Does oak taste different than beech or cherry wood? How do you know?
ReplyDeleteWell, Scotch is aged in oak casks that have contained...I want to say port. I think it's port. So you definitely get the flavor of the oak. I am not as I said a fan of the stuff, that's just what Scotch drinkers say. I'd think they were making it up if it wasn't fo rthe fact that the stuff is aged in oak.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it people could detect a beech flavor or a cherry wood flavor.
Ah, yes, the barrels. May have something to do with that one.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest now, wine IS more important than chemically made-up sodas. Few things aren't!
ReplyDeleteAnd while I, like so many, fail to see what the big deal is about, it's absolutely true that wine has an incredible variety and could become a fascinating hobby for those into this sort of things.
Of course, I believe that very few people actually are discerning enough to enjoy a highly expensive rare wine and warrant the prices some bottles reach.
To me it's like Picasso. I'll never "be" into it. If others love it, sure, fine, good for them. As long as it stays reasonable.
So, basically Eolake, you're right: it IS like art. :-)
"What planet do they live on, that fishnet stockings is a "problem"?"Well, once you make them synonymous to "hooker", they definitely are.
Every culture has its Talibans, it seems...
I have to agree with what somebody commented on the Sun article: Bratz dolls, with their heavy (and slutty) make-up and impossible platform shoes, are intrisically more vulgar. But then again, I'm a faces man, so maybe my focus is biased...
Jimbo,
Careful there. Usually, the cheapest is also the worst.
According to my father, you don't truly know what beer is until you've tasted some stuff that's notably more expensive than a Bud or an Almaza (the national brand in Lebanon, literally "diamond").
The most expensive is not always the best, but the cheapest is pretty much always the crappiest.
Sometimes it's not even what it says (namely here, actual wine).
Re "oakey". There's a polemic in France, about the commercial practice of adding oak chips to speedily give wine that flavor. Many professionals/connoissors say it's pure cheating, since the taste of oak is merely a component of the gustative quality of a wine properly aged in oak barrels.
Otherwise put, a scam to fool the gullible snobs who know the word "oakey" but know little "okay" stuff about wine.
For some reason that I know precious little about, an aged wine seems to get so much better. Some delicate and subtle slow chemistry taking place...
Careful there. Usually, the cheapest is also the worst.Yeah, but the expensive stuff would probably be lost on me. I'm not sure my palate is all that sophisticated. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMe, I don't like any alcoholic beverage at all, except if it has oodles of sugar in it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should try a very good wine one day. But I'm not at all optimistic.