Have you ever been to a wine tasting before? Like, an actual event where you can taste a whole bunch of wines and then spit them out (because nothing says first world consumerism like drinking a $500 liquid only to spit it out) in order to determine their taste? I’ve been to a few of these events. I mean, of course I have, I love wine! I’d drink wine whenever there’s a glass in front of me (geez, I sound like an alcoholic), but honestly? I have NO idea what’s the difference between a red wine from Spain bottled in 1995 and a red wine from Italy bottled in 1996. I don’t! They taste the same to me! I also can’t really tell the difference between a cheap, store-bought wine and an expensive one that I paid hundreds of in some fancy restaurant. Sure, whenever I get together with my friends and order something nice and expensive we all go “Hmm, oh, yes, indeed, it’s quite dry with just a hint of aroma” or whatever random words we can think of throwing in there, but honestly, I’m rather certain that store-bought wine and expensive wine taste exactly the same, and the “sophisticated” taste that we feel in the restaurant is merely due to the atmosphere, a sort of placebo effect – we expect it to be good, so our taste buds tell our brain that it is.

Sure, you can say “Well, you know, dude, that’s, like, your opinion, man” (that’s how you normally speak, right?), but what if I told you that science has my back on this? Enter Mr. Frederic Brochet, who conducted a study that famously humiliated wine experts everywhere. He got a bunch of renowned wine experts together for what they thought was a study on wines. For the first test, the participants were given a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine, asked to taste both and then tell the difference between them. Sounds simple and straightforward enough, right? Except for the fact that they were both the exact same white wine, except in one bottle it was dyed red, and absolutely none of the so-called experts even noticed. Whoops. For the next test, Brochet asked them to taste a store-bought wine and an incredibly expensive bottle and describe the differences. You know where this is going – they were both the exact same wine. Wow.

So, what does that tell us? Well, two things, mostly – first of all, experts have NO idea what wine actually tastes like and mostly judge it based on labels and preconceived notions rather than on, you know, their taste. Second of all, it tells us that there’s no “right” and “wrong” wine. Just like everything else in life, it’s all up to your personal preference. Sure, there are subtle differences in the taste (even if a lot of people can’t really detect them) but overall there’s nothing that makes the expensive wine objectively taste better than the cheap one. So drink what you like and don’t be ashamed of it!

It’s important to remember that while this blog’s primary topic of discussion is and always will be wine, from time to time there are other important matters happening in Quebec which are most definitely worth looking into, writing about and thinking about. One of these subjects that is very near and dear to my heart is autism, as my best friend (whom I’ve known since we were six) has Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism), and as a result I’ve been placed in a position where I was allowed to learn a lot about this condition both from first-hand experience and by speaking to people within the autism community, which is rather prominent in Quebec. How prominent, you ask? Well, over 11,000 children have been diagnosed with autism, and at this rate within five years that number is going to double. Sadly, autism is a condition that can not be cured (and even if it could, many autistic people, my friend included, would reject the cure), so it has to be accommodated. And Quebec is finally willing to step up its game.

As the Montreal Gazette reports, over 68% of families with autistic children experience financial problems due to the numerous therapies and trainings that the children require in order to be able to look after themselves. Many (though not most) autistic children have difficulty with basic skills such as feeding and getting dressed. They require very specific training by professionals, and that training is very expensive, often leading to a financially unstable home, which in turn leads to a high divorce percentage among parents of autistic children. There are numerous ways in which such families can be aided, which is why on Friday a forum of over 100 participants took place where it could be decided precisely what could be done to aid families of autistic children.

Sadly, the results of that forum were not precisely the ones that they were expecting – while the families were hoping for confirmation that more money was on the way, the only information they got was that the government was working on an action plan to determine what could realistically be done. While that’s better than nothing, parents were disappointed, explaining that a plan which may take months to form and go way into 2017 or 2018 to implement is just not cutting it. They need the money as soon as possible, because until the government increases the funding families have to rely on their own limited income (many parents are unable to work in order to care for their children) and on various charities. The government can truly make a change here. Let’s hoping that this change will happen sooner rather than later.