Jeff & I sat down to taste on Tuesday, as we are wont to do. I think he will be starting to post his tasting notes soon. I'm of a different mind — I generally find tasting notes kinda boring. If they're wildly accurate, they're kinda dry, and if they're too fanciful, they're less about the wine than they are the imagination. Not that imagination's a bad thing, just not too helpful.
Aaaanyway, that doesn't mean that I won't write them (or haven't)... I keep notes for myself to refer back to wines and jog my memory about them. I find that, otherwise, my memory is kinda fuzzy. I tend to have other connotations with a wine other than my tasting of it, which color my overall impression positively or negatively.
And then, there's the to-do about ratings...
As I may have written here before, I am not big into scores. I don't want to discuss it, I'm just not. But I do think there should be a shorthand way we can communicate about what wines we like (or not) and recommend (or not). Jeff & I have decided to adopt a five star system. Not original, nothing fancy, just a way of communicating to you, our dear reader, how we feel about wines.
Ratings are by their very nature subjective. We make no pretense otherwise. When I say such and such a wine got two stars, that's according to my taste. Someone else might very well love that overly extracted, high alcohol zinfandel (e.g) and rush out to buy it, but not I, so I won't mis-characterize it. This is what we came up with:
no stars — unsound wine and/or not varietally correct. Reserved for the truly terrible of the bunch.
★ — drinkable, not particularly enjoyable, wouldn't buy. For wines on the poor side of ordinary.
★★ — enjoyable, quaffable, wouldn't rush out to buy. If this wine were sold by the gallon out of a spigot, I'd be happy. At the higher price-points, good, but not worth the money.
★★★ — good, buy this wine at this price. Everything is relative, and we recognize that wine costs money. So if you see three stars, it means the wine delivers, and is worth it. It also means you'll see $8 wines and $40 wines with three stars. Expect the latter to be better than the former.
★★★★ — extraordinary, run and buy it. This wine either delivers exceptional value or is otherwise something special.
★★★★★ — transcendent, life changing. Needless to say, we don't expect to be awarding many of these! A wine with five stars is amazing regardless of the price, and will likely not be for sale, anyway. All of us should be so lucky to have a few experiences like these in a lifetime.
We also reserve the right to do half points... :)
So, here are a couple of highlights from our tasting:
Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso DOC '04 ($18) ★★★ I love me a good tear of Jesus...which is the name for the superior wines from the Vesuvio DOC (on, you guessed it, Mt. Vesuvius). Light bodied with a deep core and decent acid, this wine would be great slightly chilled in the summer, or room temp with a stew in the winter.
Dios Baco Cream Sherry (NV) ($18) ★★★½ You know I love the sherry! Dios Baco has a label that might put you off initially — it looks way too test-marketed. Jeff assured me, however, that they are not a negociant & own their own vineyard sources. This is salty toffee in a glass! Nutty and not overly sweet, it won me over after a luke-warm introduction. The finish is shortish, but this is a good value for the category.
PS — Happy Venezuelan Independence Day!
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