The Dictators of Order

The first time I was in Burgundy, I drank a Pinot Noir from a producer and decided to try the Chardonnay. I was told that after tasting the red wines, I shall not be served the white. Today, at FHA2012, I was told that after tasting the "better" wine, I am not allowed to go back to the "lower" quality wine. Who made those rules?

Frankly, I am sick of having the dictators of wine-order tell me how I should drink my wine. As the evaluator, I should decide how I want to assess my wines. If I don't like the taste of your wine, it doesn't matter how I drink it, or which order I drink it in.

You learn that the order of tasting is white, red and then dessert wines. After tasting reds, the tannins will affect your tastebuds for the white. That is why you don't drink big barossa shiraz, then a white wine or oaked chardonnay, then a flavourless unoaked light wine. Basically, it is about progressing from a lighter-bodied wine to a fuller body. If your chardonnay has the same body as your Pinot Noir (which is possible), let me drink it!  I know many people who can't taste whites after their reds. Luckily, I don't have such a problem. I know how to keep the tannins on my tongue and off the gums and the sides of my cheek. Drink a little water. I am good to go again.

As for quality, they say it is wrong to mix the "bad" after drinking the "good". You are doing the "good" wine injustice. Well, shouldn't they be pleased? The "wine labelled as bad that you just served me should taste better with the "good" wine I just drank. Ask a winemaker; he will say all his wines are good because he made them. Ask a distributor; he will say the one which is more expensive. Robin Goldstein & co disagrees.

"Our results indicate another reason for why the average wine drinker may not benefit from expert wine ratings: he or she simply doesn’t like the same types of wines as experts. This is consistent with Weil (2001, 2005), who finds that even among the subset of tasters who can distinguish between good and bad vintages, or reserve or regular bottlings, they are as likely to prefer the “better” one as the “worse” one. Unless they are experts, individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. Our results suggest that non-expert wine consumers should not anticipate greater enjoyment of the intrinsic qualities of a wine simply because it is expensive or is appreciated by experts."

At a wine show with thousands of wines, it is poor strategy to taste wines in a particular order because you simply lose track of which wine you have drunk from each winery. The most pratical way is to taste the whole range from the winery and move on because:
1) you spend more time with the winemaker.
2) you understand the winery better after you have tasted the whole range.
3) chances are that you will be caught up with other wineries and you probably won't return to taste the remaining wines.

References:
http://www.wine-economics.org/journal/content/Volume3/number1/Full%20Texts/01_wine%20economics_Robin%20Goldstein_vol%203_1.pdf