PART 3: Opinion Has Been Democratized



It might time to introduce a third school-of-thought: a movement capitalizing on the best of both worlds, yet addressing some of the current problems encountered with reviews. Let’s imagine this world:



Reviews are conducted by a crowd of wine lovers. The single palate opinion has just died, giving birth to an aggregation of people’s reviews in one snap shot. Consumer rating is powerful. It is an expression of an experience communicated… Continue

PART 2: The Value of Reviews and Scores



Wine, unfortunately, is perceived as elitist and ridiculously complicated. Young adults entering the working world possess little or no knowledge about wine. The barrier of entry into the wine world is overwhelming and too often intimidating. This should not be the case. Reviews can help demystify the upper-class status of wine and deliver knowledge to the new wine enthusiast.



In rather simple terms, a rating is an indication and a… Continue

So much ink has flowed on whether or not wine should be reviewed or assigned a score. The argument is passionate and two radically opposite schools-of-thought have emerged from the debate.





PART 1: Just Say NO



An individual review is a subjective judgment that does not reflect the opinion of the larger community. The mere fact that one person loves a wine, or hates it, has nothing to do with our personal taste buds. We recently hosted a viognier blind tasting and… Continue

I was born and raised in France where wine is part of the culture. Wine knowledge was acquired painlessly with family and friends around the dining table. Tasting started at an early age (that is... around 14 year-old) and by the time I became a young adult, I proudly owned a small collection of wine I had purchased with my saved money. Week end parties consisted of a fabulous feast at a friend's home where we savored some great find: a small local producer with reasonable… Continue