TASTE, by Roald Dahl

How is it that a harmless guessing game between two lovers of good wine suddenly grows into a serious rivalry?

This story presents two friends, two lovers of good wine. They love playing a harmless game where one of them has to guess what wine is the one he is tasting. In my opinion, Mike wasn't able to stand how it was that no matter how difficult the wine he gave to Michael was, he would always say the correct answer. The pride of Mike and Richard is the seed that grows into a serious chivalry between both of them. It seems that Richard wants to showoff his talent tasting wines, while Mike wants to prove that he can't be perfect doing that and that he knows many particular wines. This seed grows, making them to make very risky bets. At the end, the writer suggests that Mike is going to get furious with Richard, and that maybe their friendship will end. 

As in all Dahl´s stories, they have a twist in the end. Analyze it.

When I finished reading the story, the message of the writer was clear for me: not everything is what it seems to be, and you always have to discriminate what is real from what is not. It is clear that for the writer bets have had an important place in his life. As in Man fom the south, Taste was supposed to have a catastrophic ending. Dahl shows us that we must keep an eye on people, that we shouldn´t trust so easily the people around us. Taste was supossed to finish Richard winning the bet and Mike being devastated. We should have to thank the maid, because wihout her there would be no happy ending. 

We  notice that many of Dahl´s characters are ordinary and respectable on the surface, but many of them have an unexpectedly dark and cruel side to their personalities. Taste is no exception. What´s your view on this?

Mike is willing to bet the hand of his daughter. Although it was for sure that if Richard had played fairly he would have won the bet, it was the most cruel thing a father could do to his daughter. The only thing that is on his mind is to show that Richard isn't as talented as he seems to be. He doesn't listen to the claims of hir wife and daughter, he just goes on with the bet.

Cruelty and darkness is obviously also shown in Richard, because he has cheated to win the bet - he is willing to cheat just for winning the hand on the daughter of his friend.

Taste deals with themes such as: stubbornness, pride and even human stupidity. Give examples.

The perfect example of stubbornness is Mike. His daughter and wife begged him not to bet his daughter as a trophey, but he let herself get carried away by his ambitions.

Pride is shown in Richard, because he cheats for showing off his "talent" of tasting wines.
Human stupidity is shown in both characters, because they let theirselves get carried away by the game and their own interests.

Write a paragraph to conclude the story.

To conclude the story, I've decided to write another ending to the story. 

'Now, Michael!' his wife said. 'Keep calm now, Michael, my dear! Keep calm!' While his wife was begging Michael to clam down, at the other side of the table Richard began to giggle, and after the giggle, came the laughter. Suddenly, for the surprise of all the rest, Michael also began to laugh. 'You forgot the glasses on my study Richard? How silly of you. You ruined everything' said Michael 'Yes, very silly of me, but it made it even better, don't you think?' answered him Richard 'I think it could have not ended better than this. Nobody expected that. Neither both of us, which makes it much more better!' Richard and Michael continued laughing, but the rest stayed in silence. They were shocked. Then Michael said 'Happy April Fool's day, everybody'.