My dog's reaction to a Bordeaux made me reconsider everything

I used to think tasting notes were just pretentious jargon, but then my corgi sniffed my glass and immediately started howling at the cherry notes. Now I'm convinced animals have a better palate than most sommeliers, and I take my wine reviews with a grain of salt.

3 comments

3 Comments

diana_grant311h ago

Is the VALUE of a tasting note in its objectivity or in the shared experience it creates? The dog might be honest, but it can't build a CULTURE around that honesty.

lisa_shah1h ago

Consider that your corgi was likely howling at the alcohol or the sharp, fermented scent, not the abstract concept of cherries. An animal's olfactory prowess is geared toward survival, not parsing the nuanced layers of a wine's bouquet. Human tasting notes, even the flowery ones, are an attempt to build a shared vocabulary for subjective experience, something a dog fundamentally can't contribute to. Dismissing that entire endeavor because an animal had a visceral reaction seems like missing the point of communication altogether.

rubyb211h ago

But what if the dog's howl is the most honest tasting note in the room? It bypasses all the learned jargon and hits you with pure, undistilled reaction. Our elaborate vocabularies are useful, but they can also become a kind of performance. The corgi isn't concerned with bouquets or nuances, it's just telling you the smell is intense and weird. That seems like valuable information, even if it doesn't come with a star rating. Reducing it to mere alcohol detection feels like dismissing a critic for not using big enough words.