What Would Proust Drink? A WLDG Survey Part One

[David M. Bueker]

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

A little while ago, an interview with Robert Parker was posted on the web (and on the WLDG by our own Tom Hill). The interview met with the usual anti-Parker criticisms, but also with criticisms for the simplicity of the questions. What many people did not realize was that the questions were essentially what has become known as the Proust Questionnaire.

Wikipedia Entry: Proust Questionnaire

After reading the interview and pondering the questions a bit, I had an idea to create a twist on the Proust Questionnaire that focused on wine. Robin was excited to try the idea, and so I drafted a set of questions.

There are twenty one questions in all, so the list is going to be divided into four parts. Part one is in this thread, and parts 2-4 will be in separate threads. To respond, copy the questions into your post, and add your answers at the end of each one. If that’s too much work, just write your answers in the order of the questions. Don’t take this too seriously. It’s just for fun.

Part One:
What do you appreciate the most about wine?
What is your wine weakness?
Your favorite color wine is…
Your favorite wine name is…
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?

[David M. Bueker]

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
How it has made my life better through all the friendships, fun and learning opportunities.

What is your wine weakness?
Buying!

Your favorite color wine is…
The deep gold of a well aged white wine.

Your favorite wine name is…
Dirty & Rowdy

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Nuanced

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Hedonistic

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
Drinking it with friends and family

What is your wine weakness?
Impulse purchases (particularly at the last winery of the day on wine tasting trips).

Your favorite color wine is…
Don't really have a single favorite.

Your favorite wine name is…
Hard to come up with just one. Forlorn Hope would be up there, though. (That counts, right?)

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Elegant

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Jammy

[David M. Bueker]

Relatively similar answers for you and me Mike.

What do you appreciate the most about wine? – Pairing with meals, shared with family & friends.
What is your wine weakness? – In all honesty, I can’t pass up a sweetie (Auslese, BA, TBA, Ice Wine)
Your favorite color wine is…Dark pink, with bubbles
Your favorite wine name is…Megalomania and Organized Crime (these are actually the names of wineries, not far from me in Ontario)
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on? – Long finish
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off? - Smooth

[Robin Garr]

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
Sharing with family and friends in the context of a meal, appreciating that it stimulates the intellect as well as the senses.

What is your wine weakness?
Really good value wines that cost $10 and taste like $40. I'll buy more than I need, and the leftovers end up cellar orphans.

Your favorite color wine is…
Red, in general. The dark but not inky hue of Tuscans and Southern Rhones in particular.

Your favorite wine name is…
Too many to count. Vieux Telegraphe, maybe. Or Sine Qua Non, although in that case I don't like the wine much.

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Mineral. Complex. (tie)

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
"Gobs of hedonistic fruit."

This is a very good idea. Proust with his acute sense of observation would have written wonderful TNs if his sensibilities extended to wine. However, I haven't read his famous extended novel since I was a student so I can't recall any wine descriptions. I ought to try again but it's a daunting prospect.

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
Conviviality

What is your wine weakness?
Always wanting to finish the bottle (provided the wine is good)

Your favorite color wine is…
Red with a hint of rust at the rim

Your favorite wine name is…
Difficult. I'm sure that I'll think of something better as soon as I have posted. Try Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet.

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Harmonious, elegant

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Subtle oak

[David M. Bueker]

Subtle oak being a turn off because it usually isn't?

Subtle oak being a turn off because it usually isn't?

Absolutely! It's a favourite Aussie back label descriptor.

[Jenise]

What do you appreciate the most about wine? The friendships. The serious wine lovers we've met and the way it's what a neighbor invites you to drop by for when it doesn't really matter what you're drinking--we were guested like this by a near neighbor we don't see often enough just last night.

What is your wine weakness? Shopping.

Your favorite color wine is… The tawny red of a maturing pinot noir.

Your favorite wine name is… Gosh, don't have one. I enjoy most the ones that are self-deprecating but still mindful of a serious ambitions and that can be distinguished from joke names like "Mad Housewife", but though I've laughed at a number of such names I haven't managed to hang onto a favorite.

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on? Tie between 'elegant' and 'complex'.

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off? This one's easy: 'smooth'.

[Jenise]

Organized Crime

Great name!

Organized Crime

Great name!

http://www.organizedcrimewinery.com/

[David M. Bueker]

The idea of a cooperative project between Organized Crime Winery and Dirty and Rowdy Winery is very interesting.

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
Its variability,complexity and change over time.

What is your wine weakness?
Napa Cabernet

Your favorite color wine is…Black/dark ruby

Your favorite wine name is…Fat Bastard


What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Cassis for red wine and apricot for white wine

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Grassy

[David M. Bueker]

Bravo on the grassy!

Nice image of a grassy meadow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wd4Kgd-2lg

Part One:
What do you appreciate the most about wine? The joy it brings.
What is your wine weakness? An elegant Burgundy (red or white but especially red) that is extremely aromatic (flowers or fruit).
Your favorite color wine is… Red
Your favorite wine name is… Fleurie (just because I like the idea of flowers in wine) not my favorite of all wines to drink
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on? bacon fat? not really sure on this one
What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off? monster or monstrous

On color, I thought you were asking do we drink more red or white wine. Actually, my favorite color is sometimes found in a rose' wine and is a pale to mid-coral.

Surprised that two people have listed "smooth" as a turn-off descriptor--to me that would be a compliment to a wine.

[Jenise]

Surprised that two people have listed "smooth" as a turn-off descriptor--to me that would be a compliment to a wine.

Why I did? Because I usually hear it as a compliment from the non-cognoscenti for a wine that's low-acid, low-tannins, and just generally lacking complexity.

What do I appreciate the most about wine? Its capacity for making me proud of all the nonsense I spout when I'm drinking it.

My wine weakness? Buying more wine than I'll ever be able to drink. Or not being immortal so I can be sure I'll drink all the wine I buy.

My favorite wine color? The indescribably lovely burnt gold hue of ancient Sauternes? Or maybe the brick miscus encircling glasses of luscious old Burgundy? I guess that sort of thing is pretty, but what really turns me on is the relief of seeing my wife's table cloth all white again after I've dosed it with a canister of Wine-Away Red Wine Stain Remover.

My favorite wine name? Ridge, which seems to me a great name for a winery, or a dog, as in Rhodesian Ridgeback.

My favorite wine descriptor turn-on? Long finish.

My most despised wine descriptor turn-off? Short finish. Then there's the one that always makes me gag, hot, as employed by the Spectator to mean popular but makes me think of drinking wine out of a coffee cup. But the word that invariably brings out the worst in me is connoisseur, as in "Hall, I hear you are a great wine connoisseur," to which I always reply with false modesty, "Well, I got a couple bottles of Ripple in the garage."

What do you appreciate the most about wine?
It’s "chameleon-like" character.

What is your wine weakness?
I make too little and I have to buy wine.

Your favorite color wine is…
Red

Your favorite wine name is…
SHEBANG!

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on?
Complex (multi dimensional)

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Linear (single dimensional)

Salute

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off?
Linear (single dimensional)

Salute

I sometimes use "linear" to describe a long focussed shape on the palate, but, for me, that does not exclude complexity.

What do you appreciate the most about wine? Why, this forum. Of course.

What is your wine weakness? Wine.

Your favorite color wine is… Anything on the gold spectrum, particularly in the "Vitamin-B pee" range.

Your favorite wine name is… "Pinot Evil"

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on? "Balanced".

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off? Any descriptor after the fifth one.

[Jenise]

Any descriptor after the fifth one.

LOL!

What do you appreciate the most about wine? Sharing and discussing with friends.

What is your wine weakness? Buying too much of it and on occasion drinking too much of it.

Your favorite color wine is… Love the color of rose - still wine and Champagne.

Your favorite wine name is… "Fifty Shades of Grape"

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-on? Sultry

What wine descriptor is your greatest turn-off? Unctuous