In case you were enjoying wine too much...

Well, it's a standard study technique and makes perfectly good sense for folks taking up the subject as a profession - though it works better if you make your own.

MP's conversation cards, otoh, could be very practical at a jeebus. I think they might fit in right after the Twister session.
 
I may be the victim of a sampling bias in NYC, Ian. I probably meet more grimly determined young somms jumping through this arbitrary hoop than you do. Learning it all from flash cards to take a test doesn't seem to give quite the same result as the older methods.
 
Learning it all from flash cards would be a recourse for morons, Joe. As an adjunct tool, drilling with them provides a useful way to fix new terms and basic ideas during idle moments, for meaningful use later in context. Writing them up yourself is better, because the act of writing helps kick off the fixing process; it's also less expensive.

Your friends may have eidetic memories, though, in which case flash cards serve no purpose.
 
With the caveat that I can't be arsed to listen to that podcast, I will say that flashcards, as Ian says, have their place in assisting rote memorization. That's about it AFAIC, though. For wine knowledge, it doesn't strike me as a terribly useful tool but de gustibus and all that.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
With the caveat that I can't be arsed to listen to that podcast, I will say that flashcards, as Ian says, have their place in assisting rote memorization. That's about it AFAIC, though. For wine knowledge, it doesn't strike me as a terribly useful tool but de gustibus and all that.

Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

So, seriously, it's intimidating to have both the chemistry guys aligned against me. Nevertheless, were I taking up wine commerce as a trade, I would not tarry long before assembling lists of appellations, vineyards, and producers in, say, Piedmont and Burgundy (for starters) transferring them to cards, and, while riding the bus or standing in line at the movies, drilling them. Would the essentially mechanical skill thus acquired confer mastery of the subject? Obviously not. Could I gain such mastery without it? I doubt it.

It's a useful technique, though perhaps not to everyone's taste, and hardly worth a ton of debate.
 
My larger point may have been obscure, but I was not fulminating against flash cards.

It's more a question of the modern career path for winefolk, which seems to lead them through the minimum alcohol requirement of Jurancon and which are the seven major regions of the Alentejo rather than to a genuine enjoyment of wine and ability to communicate same.

The guys in charge have set up successful barriers to entry that any labor economist would recognize, and these serve their usual purpose in raising wages and improving conditions for those on the inside. And the higher they raise the barriers, the more regions of South Africa outside the Stellenbosch everyone must know, and the more they must be able to distinguish Stellenbosch from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in a blind tasting in order to keep out the riff-raff.

Flash-card derived knowledge of regions and grapes--well, one does need some idea of what is where, and I don't want to argue against knowledge and sophistication, but am I better off because I remember that the Novi Pazar GCAO isn't the same as the Ivaylovgrad GCAO? I may not have a true appreciation of their wines.

I'm not sure blind tasting is the tree of knowledge either.

Does any of that have much to do with doing the job well? I doubt it considerably. But you can certainly write a test on it all with whatever pass rate you choose.

/rant
 
i'm with brother joe. i want my hooch slinger to focus her/his neurons on seeking out teh good shit. time spent learning the names of losers and their industrial specifications is wasted, nest ce pas?

i mean, do i really want brian sewell to regale me with a lecture on hallmark card weights and widths?

fb.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
My larger point may have been obscure, but I was not fulminating against flash cards.

It's more a question of the modern career path for winefolk, which seems to lead them through the minimum alcohol requirement of Jurancon and which are the seven major regions of the Alentejo rather than to a genuine enjoyment of wine and ability to communicate same.

The guys in charge have set up successful barriers to entry that any labor economist would recognize, and these serve their usual purpose in raising wages and improving conditions for those on the inside. And the higher they raise the barriers, the more regions of South Africa outside the Stellenbosch everyone must know, and the more they must be able to distinguish Stellenbosch from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in a blind tasting in order to keep out the riff-raff.

Flash-card derived knowledge of regions and grapes--well, one does need some idea of what is where, and I don't want to argue against knowledge and sophistication, but am I better off because I remember that the Novi Pazar GCAO isn't the same as the Ivaylovgrad GCAO? I may not have a true appreciation of their wines.

I'm not sure blind tasting is the tree of knowledge either.

Does any of that have much to do with doing the job well? I doubt it considerably. But you can certainly write a test on it all with whatever pass rate you choose.

/rant
Click to expand...

Point taken. Raj Vaidya, in his interview with Levi, said the sommelier is 'in charge of an experience," or something similar. I imagine over-intellectualization and the appearance of pretension are pitfalls, at least. And, as you suggest, mastery of facts at this level of detail may be beside the point here.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
mastery of facts at this level of detail may be beside the point here.
Click to expand...
Well, unless you have a salary to defend.

But for your and my purposes, yes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top