Our scope

Being a WSET trained wine and spirits professional, I am entrusted with a sense of responsibility to elevate how general public consume wines and spirits. In a world where technology has not advanced enough to digitize smell and tastes, WSET has done a great job standardizing the language we use to describe and communicate our tasting experiences through the use of Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT). However, while the SAT is sufficient amongst experienced tasters, much would be lost in translation for regular consumers. For someone who has never smelled truffle, gooseberry or decaying violet, those descriptors mean nothing; not to mention the various textural differences of tannins.

This would mean most tasting notes that consumers see online and on marketing materials are in fact very similar. One can see descriptors like cherry, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla for reds and lemon, zest, butter, floral for whites appear a lot on many different labels. One can also see words like full bodied, smooth, crisp/refreshing acidity, long finish appear a lot - real or not. Without actually tasting them, how can anyone know exactly what these bottles taste like? So the question becomes, how to entice consumers enough to want to buy them? Thus the industry has resorted to beautiful labels, scores by well known critics, and well-lobbied brilliantly marketed brands and production regions. Those producers who genuinely just want to tell their own story through wines can’t help but play the superficial marketing game in order to survive. After seeing bottles after bottles being rated over 95 by one critic yet rated below 90 by another, how can we trust any publication other than our own preferences? Regardless whether if your palate is trained or untrained, by the time the wine reaches your tongue, it’d be too late to ask for any kind of refund for supposedly false marketing.

Have you ever heard anything like this?

“The tasting note says it has potpourri and raisins, I do not taste them, I’d like to get a refund”

I think there’s an understanding that wine and spirits tasting experiences are very personal. So how can one experience more? How can one objectively share their experiences without losing authenticity and personal touch? How do we develop our own perspectives over outside influences?

I am not offering an answer because I do not know how. I am simply offering my personal perspectives that enhances my own enjoyment of these magical elixirs.

Metaphor

Terroir is a word that’s used a lot in the world of wines and spirits, it is actually not as well understood as we thought it is. How can the same variety taste so different one region from another? How can seemingly the same tasting wines actually tasting very differently if we examine them closer? How do we tell a story of our own tasting experiences and how do we grasp what the winemakers are trying to say? We may never be able to fully answer these questions but we may not need to since enjoyment should be our No. 1 priority, what really matters is how do we elevate and have our own fun with it?

When consider how we can escape the loop of describing every Cabernet Sauvignon with similar descriptors (black cherry, black currant, cassis, cedar, cigars box, brioche, high acid, high tannins, full body, high tannins, and long finish), I try to use my imagination to describe how I feel when tasting these wines. I try to ask my self questions such as:

How are the fruits presenting themselves?
How are they interacting with the rest of the flavours?
How are the structural elements showcasing themselves?
What do the above characteristics remind me of?

After writing the tasting notes like a good WSET-trained professional, I will then attempt to tell a cohesive story that’s personal to my experience. So I would ask myself questions such as:

Can it be described as a character, an object, a scenery, a location..etc?
How do space and time play a role in this?

After enough exposure to this mindset and practice, it can start to become somewhat of an intuition and the story starts to form from the first sight and smell.

Here are some examples for bottles that gave me the most vivid imageries for your entertainment.

Perhaps you can make this a party game during the holiday season. Hope I can hear some of those from you!