The palate difference

I read this great article on SFGate.com a week ago, about cocktail cultures, east coast versus west coast, and it really got my brain activated.  In the wine business, we know there's a difference in palate when looking at east versus west, with regards to wine.

We assume that east-coasters are European wine aficionados, ie, French, Spanish, Italian, German,  due to proximity and availability.  West-coasters, being more familiar with California, Oregon and Washington wines, tend to like the styles of wines produced in these regions more than wines produced across "the pond."  New world wines, in general, tend to be more what west-coasters are familiar with.  As with any generalization, there's always a danger of oversimplifying, so we can't assume this applies to everyone we meet.

I decided to conduct a little survey, with our branch here in Napa and our other office in New York.  I also sent a few to some of the folks in our Napa warehouse and our Albany, NY warehouse.  Nine easy questions pertaining to wine, drinks in general, favorite foods, meals, you name it.  I even threw in a ringer.  It'll sound funny, but I'd come up with an ultra-fave meal idea for myself, years ago, and thought it would pose an interesting question.  The question was if you were on death row, what would be your last meal, including beverage?

Almost all the recipients completed the survey, with answers which swung from fairly simple to very creative.  I had the recipients "reply all" when responding, so each person could read all the results.  It proved to be a fun assignment, not just for myself, but (I hope) for everyone.  I enjoyed the diverse answers.

Since I didn't send this to a large pool of people, the results are not exactly scientific, but there are some interesting trends.  Both east and west liked Cabernet Sauvignon for their favorite varietal, 43% chose Cab, the other responses were all over the board.  Other favorite varietals included Zin, Petite Syrah, Rioja, NZ Sauv Blanc and an "ice cold bottle", to name a few.  The "ice cold bottle" relates to Corona beer, as far as I can tell.  Another question I asked was what was your "favorite drink of the moment", again, this answer was all over the place, from regular well drinks (gin & tonic, single malt scotch, jack & coke) to specialties of the house (Mandarin Blossom Side Car, Margarita mixed with V8 fusion fruit juice, Domaine Charbay Ruby Red vodka w/fresh grapefruit juice.)

I also asked the question "what drink or alcohol would never cross your lips?"  The east coast answers were varied, but 28% of the west-coasters listed scotch and 43% listed whiskey as their anathema of imbibing.  Overall, there were a couple "will drink anything" answers, which was kind of entertaining.

And understandably, favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner answers often revolved around a meal at a specific restaurant.  The Cliff House in SF, the Rainbow Room in Manhattan, Rutherford Grill in Rutherford, CA, Gillwoods in St. Helena, CA, Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, CA and BarBersQ in Napa, CA, all were included as producers of favorite meals.  Seafood such as lobster, crab, King Salmon and Chilean sea bass were favored components, also, steak prepared a variety of different ways was very popular.

And for the final question, "what would be your last meal?"  One respondent listed "a chocolate cake with a file and rope ladder inside, a bottle of Cab and a cork screw."  I think that answer made us all chuckle.  Bet you wonder what my answer was.  Remember, I've had years to perfect this particular meal!

"A crusty baguette, sliced on the diagonal, spread with Fois Gras mousse sprinkled with bits of black truffles.  Black, wrinkly olives and a small dish of cornichons (french pickles.)  And the best darn glass of Claret I could get."

Even reading it again makes my mouth water...

Comments

[1WineDude]

Really interesting stuff!

I find the "palate debate" fascinating (but I'm a total geek :-). See one of my previous articles on a related topic (about how palate preferences make "objective" wine tasting difficult - if not impossible):

http://1winedude.blogspot.com/2008/07/stop-picking-on-robert-parker.html

Cheers!

[Mark Koppen]

Maybe we should also ask wine critics who score wines to give separate west and east coast scores...
Just another reason IMHO to deep six the 100 point scale - we need to talk about wine with words, not numbers!
I just can't help ranting on this subject...