The Red and the White Questions

by William Walsh

A derived text sourced from “The Red and the White,” by Calvin Trillin. From The New Yorker, August 19, 2002.

Is it possible that wine connoisseurs can't tell them apart? Does Wild Turkey count? What sort of fancy beer do you have on tap? But can anybody really tell the difference? Why? I know what you're thinking: Is it possible that a self-confessed beer-swilling ignoramus got interested in the Davis test simply as a way of debunking wine connoisseurship? Smell alone? And what other information did the test at Bruce's provide? If the Test never existed, after all, what test was that young man who showed us around the New York State winery taking when he got three out of seven? What test did I keep hearing about in California all those years?