Ultimate tea vs wine comparison>split from 'good yancha'

[wh&yel-apprentice]

No Chip didn't split off from this thread:
Good quality Yancha, I did it because there are so many threads by a core group of about a dozen or so people who regularly like to discuss tea vs wine.<<< this thread is for you

So here it is, have at it, go at it as much as your discussion/arguing <3's desire

#1 consideration is making these similarity/dissimilarity comparisons is that 'opinions are like...' well you know the rest...or as Chip likes to say, 'drink what you like, like what you drink'. After 30yrs of wine drinking, forum and in person 'discussions', one-on-one private sessions with a few great wine makers>>>all comes down to personal preferences, imho ...it all get's to be tedious to me know. People just have different preferences.

I'll sit back and drink some $1.99 Trader Joe's '2-buck-Chuck' Charles Shaw 'Shiraz' while ya all debate these things (yeah, I've had some of the big guns of wine---La Tache, but never Romanee Conti<world's most expensive vintage Bourgogne, just don't care about all the fuss anymore)...actually on a diet, not drinking much wine anymore< casualties of too much hedonism in the recent past

some links to a few TC threads and MarshalN's blog for reference later

[Chip]

Perhaps placement under "Other" would be more all tea inclusive versus an oolong exclusive? Please let me know, I can move the topic.

[Herb_Master]

, but never Romanee Conti<world's most expensive vintage Bourgogne,

Nor have I - knowingly - - -

but the most momentous wine I ever drank was an anonymous Vosne Romanee Premier Cru (round about 1975 for a vintage about 4 or 5 years earlier.

I rushed back to the shop for more - but the manager said people had driven 100 miles to snap up his last few. The word was out that it was a de-classified Grand Cru. The heavy money suggested it was a 'La Romanee' but a few believed it was indeed 'Romanee Conti'.

It was like liquid velvet with spice trickling down the throat and spreading warmth slowly through all 4 limbs.

If the winemaker was too embarassed to admit which vineyard it was from and had de-classified it, I can only tremble at the thought of drinking a vintage he was proud of.

[brlarson]

Wine tasting skills and perfume tasting skills both will give you a good starting point when tasting tea.

The life blood of wines are fruit acids, but I don't know what are the corresponding foundational elements that produce flavors in teas.

Chinese greens seem to be describable in terms of beans and legumes but I don't know why. Japanese greens seems to have grains and grasses as root flavors -- and of course umami fits in there somehow. Teas that have been transformed by aging or roasting have their own flavor profiles. Some that perplex me are the stone fruit aromas (fruit acids) from Phoenix Mountain teas.

So, I think tea tasting is more complicated than wine tasting and I would love to see a discussion about the foundational flavor elements of teas that have been processed in various ways.