Hi
I have a strange problem. I was talking with a friend of mine, a Chinese immigrant, and he said he hates wine in particular, and most alcohol. I asked him why, he said because he thought wine was too bitter. He wasn’t sure why it was bitter, and he thought maybe the alcohol was bitter - maybe also the tannin.
But I got exactly what he was talking about.
Since that conversation, I’ve been tasting bitterness in all my wines. I had an Alicante that I used to think was perfumed and structured, but now I think is entirely too bitter. Similarly, today I had a PN but again I was tasting so much bitterness …
Strangely, when I started really swishing it around my mouth I started getting some of the other flavors that I used to find and like but still really tasting alot of bitterness.
Has anything like this happened to anyone? Is wine actually very bitter - like bitter almonds or something? Somehow I really doubt it, since so many experts with such excellent palates have tasted wine and really know so much about it.
While I do think I’m tasting alot of bitterness that is real, somehow I think maybe I just wasn’t tasting it before and now I am and so it’s somehow shocking to me what I was missing before.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
-Neal