Trust your taste!

Money can’t buy you taste!

In the summer of 2007  as a beverage chap at Renaissance,Mumbai, I always wanted to crack open a bottle of  ‘Penfolds Grange’  an Australian red wine lying in my club cellar just to taste it( INR 37000 on the menu) because in my opinion then,anything expensive had to be superior in quality and taste.  Most of us ;as I look around think in a similar fashion equating money to taste and quality!

Do you think it is correct? I realized it is not; while I started to dwell more into wines while working at Soho House,London. For discussion sake a Burgundy (renowned wine region of France)  Pinot Noir (Red grape variety) wine  which is aged may fetch half a million rupees  a bottle while the one which is young can be bought for a couple of thousands. The former would smell of mushrooms and cabbage and the latter of strawberries.  So what do you like mushrooms,cabbage or strawberries!!!!! So get my point right, never go by the price to make a choice.

Experts can’t describe your taste they can only do theirs!

“I think the food is fiery spicy” said one and “I think the food is mildly spiced” said another for the same dish, with the mushrooming of so many bloggers/critics  like me , whom should you follow ?  Well I can say you can start with  the popular and then with some trials and errors find those who match your tastes. It is exactly like following a film critic to decide on watching a movie, every journalist would have a different rating, just a matter of finding the one who matches your taste!

Snobs are only laughed at!

You like your Old Monk more than a  Captain Morgan;say it, you like a  Vada Pav more than a Burger with relish; accept it, Your like your 100 Rs  “Port” wine from Goa than an original Port ,flaunt it.  There is no shame in being honest,than cutting a sorry figure when one is asked to elaborate one’s taste!  A couple of years back when I was conducting a Whisky tasting for a group, a gentleman proudly boasted of his love for single malts and cigars, and when the blind tasting began he went gaga over an Indian grain whisky and described it as a single malt!

Last words, if you like something just go ahead and say it ,savour it , the world will anyway make judgements!