As a wine professional, I have to admit to a degree of ambivalence when it comes to blind tasting, the supposed art of spotting a wine (region, grape, maybe even producer and vintage) purely on the back of sniffing and slurping the contents of a glass. It too often feels like a contest for bragging rights. However, it does have certain benefits, especially when a blind comparison of a little-known wine and a famous product results in a challenge to expectations via surprising conclusions. Moreover, it often underlines my view that while there might be a lot of very well made wines out there, very few of them are different enough. In other words, I can't spot most wines blind, only the ones I love or hate!
Much the same is true of poetry: amid the huge homogeneous mass of well-produced verse out there, it's incredibly difficult to guess the identity behind a new poem in a blind reading unless there's a real idiosyncrasy at work. Nevertheless, a PPCE is sometimes a useful tool so long as it's undertaken with a huge pinch of salt.. That's not an Oxford degree, just a Poetry Palate Calibration Exercise. And then I go around claiming I loathe acronyms...
Dear Matthew
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Venice. We haven't bumped into Craig Raine yet but we live in hope! I remember arguing with my late father that French wines were acidic. He didn't agree with me and gave me a blind tasting of a French, Italian and Spanish wine. I identified them all perfectly. Although I genuinely know next to nothing about wine, I do know what I like!
Best wishes from Simon R Gladdish
An interesting point of comparison, Matthew. Taste is a funny old thing of course, but it's the only way to build some kind of consensus around what's great, good, and better than the merely competent. The North, I recall, used to publish poems without names. The poetry equivalent of getting someone to blind taste a wine without vintage, terroir or price coming into it. Certainly helps to broaden the palate! Though I expect poets were a bit miffed to see their work without name proudly attached, hidden instead in an index.
ReplyDeleteA lot of flash winemakers have also been undone and left blushing by blind tastings! They're good fun and can certainly open a few eyes. Maybe even an interesting activity for students? Spot the famous poet!
DeleteIndeed! I'll have to give that one a go with my students one of these days.
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