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Re:What to Eat After the Apocalypse by cbd1984 on Thursday December 18, 2014 @02:17PM (#8769100)
Except when wine tasters can't distinguish between red wine and white wine with food coloring:

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/02/the-subjectivity-o...

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/does-all-wine-t...

Re:What to Eat After the Apocalypse by msandford on Thursday December 18, 2014 @04:47PM (#8769839)
I think you need to read up on what a sommelier is and what the exam is like. People pass it, and the pass rate is such that it's not due to random chance.

I realize that you have a study that's vaguely related but the two are not the same. Not at all.

What are the credentials of the people on the "wine tasting panel"? I can't find that information anywhere.

Re:What to Eat After the Apocalypse by personZ on Thursday December 18, 2014 @02:55PM (#8769306)
Except when wine tasters can't distinguish between red wine and white wine with food coloring

This oft referenced study took oenology students and asked them to use adjectives to describe the odors of the wine. The only wines tested were white...and white with food coloring. It is unfortunate that red wine wasn't actually tested, as it would provide an interesting contrast, nor was taste actually tested at all. So as is all that you can go on is that given what appears to be a red wine, students who presumably have motives other than being entirely straightforward use red wine-type terminology.

It is an interesting study, but is not quite the trump card that so many think it is.

Further, it's a little silly how people are taking products with minor taste differences (most beers, wines, ryes, etc, are made with almost identical processes, yielding close to identical results), and then presuming to claim that the same applies to things that are dramatically different. That someone couldn't tell the expensive wine from the table wine does not prove that someone can't tell a beef burger from a veggie burger.

Re:What to Eat After the Apocalypse by cbd1984 on Thursday December 18, 2014 @03:23PM (#8769446)
> That someone couldn't tell the expensive wine from the table wine does not prove that someone can't tell a beef burger from a veggie burger.

Well, yes. That's true. Don't confuse my contribution to the topic drift for a rejection of that point.