What does it mean to be an “expert” in the area of fine wine? The wine world wants its experts; yet those that ascend to such heights demure, apologizing for the hierarchy of authority on the grounds that, well, no one can really say that one wine is superior to another. Barry C. Smith’s review of Questions of Taste places wine-centred questions into a larger framework of questions about taste and perception, subjectivity and objectivity, and the role of knowledge and judgment in perceptual appraisal. In wine, as in other domains of practice, expertise depends on craft as well as knowledge; it is socially sorted and externally validated. Salut.
The Philosophy of Wine-Tasting
What does it mean to be an “expert” in the area of fine wine? The wine world wants its experts; yet those that ascend to such heights demure, apologizing for the hierarchy of authority on the grounds that, well, no one can really say that one wine is superior to another. Barry C. Smith’s review of Questions of Taste places wine-centred questions into a larger framework of questions about taste and perception, subjectivity and objectivity, and the role of knowledge and judgment in perceptual appraisal. In wine, as in other domains of practice, expertise depends on craft as well as knowledge; it is socially sorted and externally validated. Salut.