I just assumed that most people have alcoholic beverages for the ‘buzz’/intoxication.
That highly depends on who “most people” are. Most college students at a party drink alcohol for a very different reason than e.g. most people who go on tours of the Napa Valley.
So is the taste very different to other drinks? I mean, its such a staple in so many parts of the world, I can’t help but think its either: delicious, unique or just an easy to get intoxicant. Maybe all of the above.
Not only the taste is different to other drinks, there is a great variety of complex flavors available. Wines can be very very different from each other so that you can pick a region/style/vineyard/etc. that matches your individual taste and change it as often as you like.
A non-alcoholic comparison would probably be cheese—it also can be very different and have complex flavors. Some people don’t care and eat the yellow goo (aka American cheese, ugh), and some people do care very much.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think? As in, very cheap, common wines are considered to be as good as high quality wines by wine testers when they don’t know what it is.
The cheese example is interesting though, That’s probably the best way I’ve heard it described.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think?
No, studies have shown that people suck at placing empirical taste on a one-dimensional “cheap low-status wine—expensive high-status wine” axis. Different wines do taste very differently and it’s trivially easy to verify.
That highly depends on who “most people” are. Most college students at a party drink alcohol for a very different reason than e.g. most people who go on tours of the Napa Valley.
So is the taste very different to other drinks? I mean, its such a staple in so many parts of the world, I can’t help but think its either: delicious, unique or just an easy to get intoxicant. Maybe all of the above.
Not only the taste is different to other drinks, there is a great variety of complex flavors available. Wines can be very very different from each other so that you can pick a region/style/vineyard/etc. that matches your individual taste and change it as often as you like.
A non-alcoholic comparison would probably be cheese—it also can be very different and have complex flavors. Some people don’t care and eat the yellow goo (aka American cheese, ugh), and some people do care very much.
But haven’t studies shown that wines are a lot more similar than people think? As in, very cheap, common wines are considered to be as good as high quality wines by wine testers when they don’t know what it is.
The cheese example is interesting though, That’s probably the best way I’ve heard it described.
No, studies have shown that people suck at placing empirical taste on a one-dimensional “cheap low-status wine—expensive high-status wine” axis. Different wines do taste very differently and it’s trivially easy to verify.
Oops, sorry, I was being stupid. For some reason, I equated quality and variety. My bad.