Beyond Pigeonholing
Why limit the possibilities?
Posted: Feb 10, 2011 4:51pm ET
Psychologically, we humans are programmed to pigeonhole. We want to simplify things to impose some sort of order on the world. Nuance requires some thought.
With wine, this goes beyond my usual rant against associating a region with a single grape variety, or a particular style of wine, to the exclusion of others. You know what I'm talking about: Argentina makes some wonderful wines that are not Malbec; Tuscany is more than Brunello or super Tuscans; some German wines are dry. Despite conventional wisdom, there are indeed good wines being made in Greece, Croatia, Switzerland and, yes, New Mexico.
We also pigeonhole people. "So and so" only likes big, rich reds. "That guy" only likes lean, high-acid wines. This is a flawed and dangerous way to look at things, because it limits the chances of finding more wines that make us happy.
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