The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 8 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Rivest: Avoid sommeliers who recommend wine without asking about personal preferences
“And if anybody gives you attitude, if anybody's arrogant, if anybody tries to recommend a wine, be it in a store or in a restaurant, without asking you a single question first, steer clear away from them, right?”
Rivest: No red wine is good served above 18 degrees Celsius
“There's not a red wine that's good above 17, 18 degrees, right? And the whole notion of room temperature I don't know, that goes back to the Middle Ages, but when houses are heated at 22, 23, there's not one wine that's good at that temperature.”
Rivest: Serving rosé ice cold mutes the wine and kills texture
“So many people drink their rosés ice cold, and that just mutes the wine, yeah? The better rosés, a lot of the better rosés are much better, like at 10, 12 degrees. A fridge is at four or five, eh? So, when they warm up, they really, rosés are not usually very …”
Rivest: Spitting wine delivers the exact same sensory evaluation as swallowing
“What's important to stress is that the learning process you will get everything exactly the same out of the wine except for the effect of the alcohol. Your appreciation of it, the evaluation of the body, of the structure, of the acidity, the tannins, everythin…”
Rivest: Complex wine flavors are perceived through smell, not taste
“When you say a wine taste of strawberries or chocolate or vanilla, it actually smells of those things, right? There's only four, five, or six basic tastes.”
Rivest: Tiny profit margins can bankrupt high-revenue restaurant businesses
“You need a manager to open up a restaurant because the profit margins are so, so, so tiny. If you're not constantly You know, checking your numbers constantly, constantly, constantly. You can make loads of money and, well, revenues and close down because, you …”
Rivest: Use the '20-minute rule' for optimal wine serving temperatures
“Take your whites out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving them, and put your reds in the fridge 20 minutes before serving them.”
Rivest: People underuse their sense of smell and lack olfactory memory
“We're so dependent on our eyes that we completely underuse our nose... You'll be surprised at how very common smells, everyday smells, people won't recognize once you're blindfolded, because we're not used to developing our smell memory.”