Detecting oak taste test

[Thomas]

Drew, I was with you until your last point that "most" lean toward oak. In my experience as wine buyer for the retail shop I taste scores of products (tough job!), and I believe the balanced wine and the subdued oak style is in the majority over the out-of-balance-over-oaked style. The weird thing, however, is that the latter often commands more money than the former, which says more about the power of writers and magazines (RP, WSpect, et al) than it does about people's individual power to learn and to discern.