This.
I’m not a big fan of most wines, although I do really like really sweet ones like Moscato.
Fair enough. The apple and cranberry wines are made in nearly the same fashion as the grape wines, so if you don’t taste mold in the first set, but do in the second, you probably don’t like the grape wine taste. And I certainly won’t try to convince you differently.
There are wines that are made with what look like molds—Botrytis cinerea is perhaps the most notable—but mold should have no place in most commercially made table wine. Yes, brewers yeast is a fungus. But do its products usually taste moldy? And if they do, then why don’t apple and cranberry wines, which also use that yeast to ferment sugars to alcohol, also taste moldy?
I’m amazed at the serendipity that allowed wine grapes infected with Botrytis to be made into wine. I mean, would you drink something that came from a grape that looked like that strawberry picture on the wiki page? And yet, we don’t get wonderful beverages like Chateau d’Yquem or Trockenbeerenauslese without it.
Drink what you like. Don’t let people convince you that you’re wrong. EDIT: But Sherry being one of the cleanest alcohol beverages possible? Huh? The flor yeast that coats the surface of the liquid in vat for many of the lighter Sherries, contributes an insanely complicated stew of compounds to the wine. Which helps contribute to the taste. I’d go for the ethyl alcohol and distilled water for ‘cleanest’ alcoholic beverage candidate before any Sherry.
Not a fan.
I will drink vinho verde and a very limited selection of white, but anything red is a “hard no.” I really hate whatever it is that makes it taste all flowery and perfume-y. When given red wine I feel like someone just handed me a glass of White Diamonds. Gross.
Ah youth. Carlo Rossi Jug-o-Wine. Good times, ok stuff. Better than MD 20/20 plum at any rate.
White wines tend to be oak aged, tastes like sap to me. But I know a gewürztraminer when I see one, and it’s hard to keep me away from it. I’ll usually kill a couple bottles on my own while preparing a turkey dinner.
I make arrangements to be alone with a bottle of some big fat red on my birthday. It is drunk swiftly, directly from the decanter (after having several hours to breathe), in a quiet location under the sky. It’s one of the few moments of true bliss I may know in a year. I’m not really picky, but I prefer to avoid extremes of sweet/dry.
I can’t even stand the smell of it. It’s the same with beer.
And cilantro. And cauliflower. They’re all nasty to me. To be fair I’ve never had expensive wine.
I don’t think expensive wine will be that different for you. It’s still an alcoholic beverage made from grapes. Expensive wine past a surprisingly low price, is more about rarity than intrinsic quality. So if you don’t like, say, a 15 dollar bottle of grassy, neutral oaked Sauvignon Blanc, you’re probably not going to like a hundred dollar bottle of white Bordeaux.
Cauliflower does taste a lot different when roasted, FWIW. I make a decent low-carb ersatz mashed ‘potatoes’ with it.
Inigo, Gewurz is one of my favorite wines too. Usually great with Thai food. Your description of quiet time, decanted red wine, and peace, sounded absolutely lovely.
I like red wine ok… it’s not my favorite, but I can drink it. Mostly it’s the tannin astringency that I don’t enjoy. I like milder Chiantis and things like Beaujolais. I also like Bordeaux and the similar blends (“meritage”) of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. For some reason, I’m not too fond of the typical US style straight varietals though.
But I do like white wine. Except that I’m kind of picky about it- a lot are ghastly. I’m pretty fond of New Zealand sauvignon blancs and French viognier wines- neither of those is insipid or flavorless, unlike a lot of cheap pinot grigio. I also like Vinho Verde from Portugal and Gewurztraminer and Rieslings from Germany. I’m not fond of the whole oaked chardonnay experience though. Unoaked chardonnay is often pretty decent though if you can find it.
I also like dessert wines/fortified wines- port, tokaji, vin santo, sherry, etc… are all nice after a meal.
I am in the “cilantro tastes like soap” camp, and I hate red wine. I will take a polite sip if I have to, but that’s all. I like white wine a little better, but I would never order a glass by choice. Coffee needs to be disguised by syrup and cream, tea needs to be sweetened.
I used to like pale ales and light beers, but my husband (better known as Beloved Butthead for rather obvious reasons) once made a beer that was so good that nothing else is worth drinking. Sadly, this batch also was one of the ones he randomly tossed together without writing down the recipe and he hasn’t been able to duplicate the recipe.
Cilantro to me tastes like licking the bottom of a well-used cast-iron pan. I avoid it at all costs.
I’m not a big wine drinker, and I can’t stand red wine… it’s just way too bitter for me. Some might say I haven’t tried the right wine, and perhaps they’re right, but having tried several red wines, they all taste the same to me. Bitter. I like SOME white wine, but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, so I don’t drink it either. I do however like Moscato wines and some ice wines. I like the sweeter taste than the dry ones. One of the most awful champagnes I’ve ever tried was Brut. But to each his own. 