Go figure: Budometer is a wine taste test

Call it a beer mindset, but when I saw “Budometer” I thought beer.

Turns out the test you can take at the Wall Street Journal or here (“get your buds done”) is designed to help you discover what kind of wine taster you.

But before moving along, consider that the guy behind this, Tim Hanni, “is on a mission to combat snobbery in the wine industry.”

He argues that no one has a palate superior to anyone else’s, and that there’s nothing wrong with liking wines many experts consider tacky, like White Zinfandel. He also thinks traditional tasting notes comparing wine to berries or chocolate are useless in helping most consumers find wines they enjoy.

The takeaway: Not everybody tastes everything the same way. That clearly is relevant to drinking beer.

Hanni has classified tasters into three categories: tolerant, sensitive and hyper-sensitive. And the The Lodi International Wine Awards will use these classifications at its upcoming competition.

Hanni’s also interested in the role aspiration plays in preferences, because “the amount of time and effort you put into learning about wine strongly influences preferences and buying behavior.” Now we’re moving into the territory of $750 bottles of wine (the new price for Screaming Eagle).

Go ahead take the test even if you’ve vowed wine will never pass your lips. You might learn something about your beer drinking self. I scored between 6 and 7 on the scale of 9, putting me with the “intensity and balance are key” crowd.

12 thoughts on “Go figure: Budometer is a wine taste test”

  2. There was a long string on this at BeerAdvocate a couple weeks back — the question on the beer segment came up:

    • Imported Dark, Ale, or Microbrew?
    • Porter or Stout?

    Huh?

  3. Steve, remember this is the wine quiz and you aren’t the target.

    Let’s wait to see the beer version – not that you’ll be the target there either.

  5. Adding a little bit of cream or sugar to your coffee changes you from a 9 to a 5.5?

    I declare shenanigans.

  6. Adding a little bit of cream or sugar to your coffee changes you from a 9 to a 5.5?

    Hey, they are wine drinkers.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist. Let’s hold down bashing the wine guys. I’m not sure I qualify as one, but we do have a fair chunk of wine in our pseudo cellar.

  7. Spencer – Nice link, I hadn’t seen that.

    I also got rated as a “supertaster.” (I figure I didn’t get as high a number on the Budometer because I don’t drink coffee. Should have asked about coffee beers.)

    But back to “super taster.” I first thought that was related to this story, which points out that super tasters have more taste buds and don’t much like bitter. Nothing super about that as far as I am concerned.

  8. The other interesting thing I found out after playing with the site (the WSJ one) is that your tolerance level changes simply from your expressed interest in wine, even if all of your other answers are the same (also, gender ‘drops’ tolerance a good bit…)

  9. “Steve, remember this is the wine quiz and you aren’t the target.”

    Maybe, but isn’t it all about education? I do my best to learn about the different wine styles I’m interested in — don’t lump Pinot Noir and Merlot into an odd bucket just ’cause they’re red.

    Oh, and I add cream to my coffee too — seems most of the world besides the US does too. Oh well.

  10. Nice, Stan, thanks. My wife has always claimed to be a supertaster, which is why she thinks she doesn’t like beer and coffee as “insanely” bitter as I do. I have noticed that she does a better job of identifying distinct hop flavors, and she’s a genius about identifying spice.

    I wonder how much culture plays into this (or if indeed biology creates culture). I once came up with a theory that foods tend to run on a sweet and spicy or bitter and bland axis. I’m a bitter and bland guy.

  11. I’m a bitter and bland guy.

    We’re all rooting for recovery.

    As to the role culture plays and how our perceptions adapt, I could rattle on quite a while just about green chile and hops.

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