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California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

1-6 · 1790646000 · focus · HN ↗
Let's just say it as it is... Wine is 'supposedly' an acquired taste but for most, it tastes bitter and not enjoyable for the cost. Tastes shift and luxury items from yesteryear no longer makes a strong statement about affluence to this generation.
1. frutiger · 1790649439 · focus · HN ↗
  I like the sentiment but wine has been made for thousands of years, with famous stories of kings and emperors enjoying them.
2. ajam1507 · 1790651285 · focus · HN ↗
  I think beer is even more of an acquired taste, but it doesn't stop the breweries from outselling the wineries.
3. seiferteric · 1790651409 · focus · HN ↗
  I think it just depends on what you like. I am not a big fan or most red wines (though some are good) and they give me headaches, but many chilled white wines I can drink like water.
4. deathanatos · 1790656375 · focus · HN ↗
  > it tastes bitter and not enjoyable
  Try a sweet wine, or if that's still too bitter, try a dessert wine. Wine has a huge range of sweetness.
  1. nottorp · 1790664492 · focus · HN ↗
    > Wine has a huge range
    Yeah, that's another problem with wine. Too many options and you never know what to expect.
    asdff · 1790665250 · focus · HN ↗
    To be fair though there's only so many types of wine you are liable to encounter. Doesn't take long to figure out a couple types of wine you like.
    roryirvine · 1790676013 · focus · HN ↗
    Learning the basics is fairly easy and many people find the process to be quite enjoyable...
  2. nmeofthestate · 1790678771 · focus · HN ↗
    Sour is the word they were going for I think. Wine isn't bitter IME.
    acuozzo · 1790696331 · focus · HN ↗
    Acrid is probably the word they were looking for. Wine isn't sour.
    It could be that my affinity for port & madeira biases me, but the wine-haters I know have all expressed a strong dislike of what they described as its "acidity".
    veqq · 1790743955 · focus · HN ↗
    Totally unrelated, you had a comment about scripting languages using sqlite allowing them to query arrays, do joins on vars and stuff <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42342329">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42342329
    This lets you do it: <a href="https://codeberg.org/veqq/declarative-dsls" rel="nofollow">https://codeberg.org/veqq/declarative-dsls
5. joegibbs · 1790659537 · focus · HN ↗
  Bitter? I’ve never found that with wine. Definitely beer is quite bitter, and coffee can be too. I find wine has more like a sour flavour.
6. magicalhippo · 1790666300 · focus · HN ↗
  > it tastes bitter and not enjoyable
  Clearly haven't tasted Eiswein[1]. That said, can be too sweet for my tastes.
  I'm not a wine drinker but when eating with work we usually get the wine menu, and a good wine pairing really can elevate it I find
  But yeah casual drinking is not for me.
  [1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine
7. alkonaut · 1790675313 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't think you'll have several thousand years of people enjoying wine and then suddenly one generation decides that "wait this doesn't even taste good?".
  I really like wine, and a $8.50 bottle of good quality French bubbles isn't a luxury good or a status symbol it's just life.
  But it's definitely acquired - and the fewer that acquire that taste, the less you'll sell. And people I guess often establish that taste in the 20-30 year age, and if people go out less and drink less, perhaps they'll not grow up to be wine-drinking 50 year olds?

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