Do you like it?

Here I will review the wines that I try. I’ll also cover events and cover wine basics and interviews. You can take my word for what I believe is tasty or swill, or you can ignore it. I’m no expert –yet – just an ordinary gal who loves the grape, who happens to have a keen reign on her senses. Maybe you can learn a little more about wine and become your own wine connoisseur. After all, taste is subjective. What I love, you may hate.

Wine appreciation can be a tricky thing, but the most important thing to remember is: “Do you like it?” If something tastes amazing to you, ask yourself why. What is it that you like? Try to pick out the flavours that you are experiencing. Can you taste raspberries, cherries, smoke, or maybe chocolate? Does it feel thin or syrupy over your tongue? Is it young and sharp with tannins or smooth and mellow with age? Try to define the characteristics of what you taste.

This isn’t a pretentious wine-snob thing, but a way of helping you figure out what you like and what tastes (and combinations) you enjoy. It’s also fun to let loose and come up with (sometimes ridiculous) names for the flavours tantalizing or terrorizing your taste buds. Hey, if you want to say you're drinking a fiery Merlot that reminds you of smoke-infused S’mores cooked over the campfire, then go ahead. Or maybe you’ll say nothing more than it kind of tastes like dark chocolate-covered cherries.

So, besides unbiased reviews, an extra bonus is that many of the wines I’ll write about are affordable. I don’t mean $30 affordable, I mean under $15. There are plenty of great, enjoyable wines under that price point. Yeah, a $60 bottle is probably (trust me, not always) going to be amazing, but really, how many of us are going to spend serious cash on what is so quickly enjoyed? I’ll dish out for special occasions, but for “everyday” drinking, I want a bargain.

So here's to having fun and enjoying wine!

Why Wine?

I’ve been told that I have the nose of a bloodhound and could replace drug-sniffing dogs at the airport. As fun as that sounds, I’d rather put my nose to better use. Like experiencing the varying scents of wine, for example. Luckily, my taste buds are also hypersensitive, which makes wine tasting a pure pleasure (or disappointment).

So, my blog is to share my love of wine. No, I’m not a sommelier or a wine maker, just an everyday wine lover—a consumer, just like you. Whether it’s a rich, bold and spicy Zinfandel or a buttery Chardonnay, I want to experience it all.

Apparently, anyone with a passion for something can eventually become an expert… so I’m drinking my way to expertise. In a healthy drink-in-moderation sort of way, of course.

They key is variety, not just with types of wine, but also with regions. A Viognier from France will taste infinitely different from a Viognier from Australia. Grapes pick up the characteristics of where they are grown – each region imparts distinct tastes. Climate and soil also help add to the unique flavours.

So much goes into a great wine. By learning a bit more, we can appreciate what we're drinking.

Cheers!