Confessions of a Wino

Following recent accusations that GCSE’s and A Levels are being dumbed down, I can reveal that a new education scandal has just emerged.  University Challenge questions are getting easier!  I can prove it.  My average score is two correct answers per episode and tonight I scored nine!  A personal best!

Is this the whole story though?  For every report that standards are being dumbed down, there is a claim that education standards are rising.  Could it be that the quality of the raw material, in my case (very) grey matter, is potentially ameliorating? 

In the case of the UK Labour Government, so much money has been wasted invested in education in the Blair era, that any admission that standards had not rocketed would be tantamount to admitting that one has delivered a Skoda, for the price of a Rolls Royce, in the time it takes to build a Thomas Chippendale reproduction cabinet from unseasoned wood, using a blunt pencil sharpener.

But one thing that keeps coming back to haunt me, is that the older I get, the more I realise I don’t know.  Are these Donald Rumsfeld’s unknown unknowns?  The things we don’t know we don’t know?  Let’s be honest, my University Challenge score was a freak, and next week I will be back to troubling the scorer’s first two fingers at most.

So, on the subject of the things I don’t know I don’t know, I guess my trepidation preceded me when trying another Concha y Toro wine.  Now most people, including Jamie Goode, consider Riesling to be a serious grape.  Chile is a country I know nothing about.  The Bio Bio Valley is a place I have never been.  The Quiltraman Vineyard I have encountered never.  But Concha y Toro is a name that keeps cropping up and when it does, invariably my wine education improves and I enjoy the experience.

This Winemaker’s Lot 158T on first opening had a slight botrytis aroma.  Was there added sugar?  The taste, conversely, was not sweet at all.  Quite zingy, steely and reminiscent of Love Hearts/Refreshers and fruity pear and grapefruit zing.

Apparently 10% aged in oak (I couldn’t taste this), grapefruit and sugar was probably the primary flavour.  Maybe not to everyone’s taste but I loved it.

So are exams getting easier, teaching better or kids smarter?  Might as well ask whether winemakers are dumbing down to suit the lowest common taste of the world.  Concha y Toro may be mass produced but it mostly tastes good to me.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 5:10 pm and is filed under south america. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.