Wine Rating Project
In 2016 on a trip to Piemonte to visit producers and taste wine, I wrote a wine rating system based on icons (now emojis) instead of points. Assigning points never felt right for me to express how I felt about a particular wine. My wine rating system has four operational levels. There is a hidden fifth level called 'banishment' for wines that I do not enjoy but do not want to talk about negatively. My journal entry notes to self-in bold read, “ONLY REINFORCE THE POSITIVE”.
Nine years later, I have picked it up again for several reasons, mainly as a way to record and communicate about wines that bring me joy. We need to spread. more joy in the wine industry, so that it thrives and provides young bloods fun and fulfilling careers meeting passionate people and producers transforming an agricultural product into a soul enhancing drink. And because I no longer work full time as a wine buyer and have fewer conflicts of interest when rating wines. I am buying more freely, it was hard not to take advantage of the employee discount for my personal wine supply, especially since I brought in producers that I wanted to drink all the time; but it is time to expand my 'repertoire' of wines and shout about wines that delight and have some fun with it.
LEGEND has it. . .
🏠 The house - Charming and too easy to drink
A weekday drinking wine that is affordable and offers good value. Gluglu wines that are most likely responsible for the dreaded hangover from drinking the whole bottle.
🪩 The disco ball-A dazzling ‘baller of a wine’
‘Baller’ wines are on rotation in the wine playlist because you want to score them at least annually. Wines that accompany you and gives you pleasure throughout life.
🚀The rocket ship-Takes you to the moon
Wines that take you to the moon and are harder to source due to rarity and price. A wine that holds space in your mind when you reminisce about last drinking a bottle. Almost a desert island wine.
🏝️The desert island-What dreams are made of
Sublime wines, what dreams are made of. Wines capable of inducing the aha moment. Rare and very expensive. If only you could be stuck on a magical desert island that refills this bottle when it is empty. This is the top of the classification and sadly one that does not appear often.
👹 A natty wine
When the smell from the presence or remnants of microorganisms have overtaken typical fruit aromas or flavours in the wine. A characteristic that is interesting to some but not to others.
A list of wines tasted and rated is in progress. . .