How mysterious is taste? Let’s begin by observing that by time-honored consensus, there’s no accounting for it. Meaning, as we take it, that there’s no way to demonstrate conclusively why one person is drawn to something another is repelled by or, on another level, is merely indifferent to. Reasons can always be brought forward to put a rational gloss on a particular inclination, but these always come after the fact, as reliably as carts follow horses. Examine your own preferences as carefully as you can and you may find, as we have, that you’re quickly driven to a position that doesn’t amount to much more than “I like it because I like it.”
It would seem, then, that the process of surrounding ourselves with people, things and activities we find agreeable is an important means of cultivating a sense of personal identity. But here we’re met with more mystery, since there’s no way to separate what (if any) preferences may be in our DNA from those we pick up just by living. In theory, our tastes make us who we are, but in practice, our we’re constantly influenced by and assimilating the tastes of others.
When you step into the FKC wine corner or any retail wine shop, you’ll be there to choose wine that conforms to your preferences, but your choices will be already be constrained by choices others have made — some by us, the buyers; some by folks further upstream.
More specifically, what you see on our shelves on any given day will be wine that (1) is available from a Massachusetts distributor (contrary to what many people think, we are barred from buying wine directly from a winery); (2) has been made, so far as we can determine, in good faith (a measure of the source’s seriousness, honest intent and demonstrable skill); (3) represents a variety of winemaking styles; (4) offers solid value for money at every price point; (5 and most importantly) that we have tasted and want to drink ourselves.
It’s perfectly true that given the chance to remake our shelves from scratch, we could readily populate them with wine that meets all the above criteria without duplicating a single label. That’s a tribute to the amount of sound, drinkable, interesting wine out there right now – and to the good taste of others.