Saturday, February 6, 2010

Welcome To Our Wine Blog!

Welcome to our new wine blog...

Why are we doing this? As Vermont innkeepers who manage a licensed restaurant, we are very fortunate to be able to incorporate our hobby and passion for wine into our business. This has allowed us to taste a tremendous number of wines - from fantastic to awful - far more than we would ever have tasted as non-innkeepers.

We thought it would be fun to share our "information gathering" with our friends and guests, hence the creation of this blog!

What makes us qualified to do this? The simply answer is - nothing...We are not sommeliers nor tasting experts - we just love wine! As we go forward, here a some things that you won't find in future issues:

  • Complex tasting notes with daunting descriptions of aroma and flavor profiles. If you want those, read Robert Parker's "Wine Advocate", Jancis Robinson's "Purple Pages", Marvin Shanken's "Wine Spectator" or any of Hugh Johnson's wine guides. This is not a slam on any of them - they are well-respected wine professionals and we are indebted to them for their contributions to the wine world. They are all great sources of information regarding wine, and we would look like fools if we tried to tread on their turf! Admittedly, we do have a hard time relating to some of their tasting notes, such as "hints of petrol", "nose of eucalyptus & tar", "nicely balanced smoke, earth, flint & slate", "chewy leather & cedar" and - our personal favorite - "aromas of wet wool & cat's pee"...Yummy...just makes you want to go out and buy a case.
  • A Weathertop Rating System. Again, we'll leave that to the professionals. Our philosophy is "90 Points is a State of Mind". Whatever you enjoy - drink it!
  • Reviews of 5o-year old Grand Cru Bordeaux. We can't afford it, so what would be the point? Only the pros get complimentary pours of these bad boys...
  • Reviews of high-volume, generic stuff (aka Yellow Tail...). If you like it, great, but you don't need us to talk about it. We want to highlight the stuff that, for not much more money, can put you in a different league. And the joy of finding those bargains is extremely satisfying!

We plan to keep it simple and, hopefully for you, enjoyable. We encourage you to go out to your favorite wine shop and purchase some of the wines we mention in future issues. Send us your comments - we'd love to hear what others think of our choices! We'd also love to hear about some of your personal favorites. After all, experiencing new wines is the whole point of this exercise.

For any wine we discuss, we will tell you the name of the distributor from whom we purchase. That way, if you don't see it on the shelf at your favorite wine shop, you'll be able to tell them where they can purchase the product for you (assuming you live in Vermont or frequent a shop in Vermont...). According to Joerg Klauck of Vermont Wine Merchants, one of our favorite wine-exclusive distributors, most wine shops are happy to place custom orders for loyal customers, though you may have to contend with some order minimums.

Stay tuned for our first installment and, as always,

CHEERS!

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