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A different way of looking at wine
Written by people in the food and wine industry who think of wine not as some trophy to be collected, but rather as an integral part of a culinary lifestyle.
We feel that just as a piece of crusty bread is to a wedge of cheese, or a wooden spoon is to a simmering sauce pot, so too is a glass of wine needed at the dinner table in order for the picture to appear complete.
It seems that there is an entire generation that came of age thinking of wine as an end onto itself, with each new release needing to be compared against all others and then stamped with a reviewer's score in order to give it gravitas.
Numbered ratings do a disservice to consumers as they only convey certain measurables of a wine's overall quality. Try to imagine if art critics used the 100 point scale to judge paintings hanging in the Louvre. By only stopping to view a painting based upon how many points it was awarded, museum visitors would miss out on many other masterpieces whose real beauty lies in the context of their time period, drawing style, or underlying message. This analogy helps to explain why our wine reviews are so different. They are based on our belief that a bottle of wine is first and foremost, an agricultural product. And when a skilled winemaker works with grapes harvested from a vineyard that was tended with the utmost care, they are able paint a wonderfully compelling story for you about a particular place, and its season in the sun.
Enjoying the pairing of good wine with good food is one of the essential pleasures of life. It is as much a part of who we are as the books that we read, the art that we admire and the music which we enjoy. For when the match is successful, the whole of our dining experience becomes far more pleasurable than the simple sum of all its parts.
"Wine ... the intellectual part of the meal"
Alexandre Dumas
Written by people in the food and wine industry who think of wine not as some trophy to be collected, but rather as an integral part of a culinary lifestyle.
We feel that just as a piece of crusty bread is to a wedge of cheese, or a wooden spoon is to a simmering sauce pot, so too is a glass of wine needed at the dinner table in order for the picture to appear complete.
It seems that there is an entire generation that came of age thinking of wine as an end onto itself, with each new release needing to be compared against all others and then stamped with a reviewer's score in order to give it gravitas.
Numbered ratings do a disservice to consumers as they only convey certain measurables of a wine's overall quality. Try to imagine if art critics used the 100 point scale to judge paintings hanging in the Louvre. By only stopping to view a painting based upon how many points it was awarded, museum visitors would miss out on many other masterpieces whose real beauty lies in the context of their time period, drawing style, or underlying message. This analogy helps to explain why our wine reviews are so different. They are based on our belief that a bottle of wine is first and foremost, an agricultural product. And when a skilled winemaker works with grapes harvested from a vineyard that was tended with the utmost care, they are able paint a wonderfully compelling story for you about a particular place, and its season in the sun.
Enjoying the pairing of good wine with good food is one of the essential pleasures of life. It is as much a part of who we are as the books that we read, the art that we admire and the music which we enjoy. For when the match is successful, the whole of our dining experience becomes far more pleasurable than the simple sum of all its parts.
"Wine ... the intellectual part of the meal"
Alexandre Dumas
