This is sort of like Mesrine: Part 2: Public Enemy #1 but not quite (ooh, I forgot, I haven’t published this yet – oh well, you’ll just have to wait till next month for the movie review). Anyway, in my travels to the different wineries on the Connecticut Wine Trail, I have not been so obsessed with a 100-point wine rating scale but have been into the whole wine experience of traveling to the winery on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
Getting to the winery and walking over to the vineyards to grasp a glimpse of “bud break”, or to see how many bumble bees are buzzing around the flowers, or whether or not I drove down a rock road or just up a short driveway, or when I see a sign in front of the vineyards stating simply “Grape vines in training”, or conversing with the sommelier I came to realize what’s in a wine rating anyway.
I mean, my wife’s rating is “I like this” or “I don’t like this”. After all, isn’t that what’s its all about. I like it or I don’t. How much simpler can we make this. Although I am a “rating” oenophile I will make the ratings much simpler. I will still give you a “cork” value for the price of the wine as I believe this is becoming more important given our current economy.
Each category has two numbers representing wine glasses (pretty clever, huh?), such as 9 and 10, so the wine could be a 9 or it could be a 10 or somewhere in between – I’ll let you make that choice, so let’s see what happens with this one…
9-10 wine glasses: Exceptional wines, buy all you can afford.
7-8 wine glasses: Very good wines, again buy all you can afford.
5-6 wine glasses: Good wines, keep ’em on hand for an every day table wine.
3-4 wine glasses: Give ’em a second chance, if after the second try it’s the same, dump it.
1-2 wine glasses: Nope; Nada; uh-uh; no way; no-no-no; This cost how much? Goodness, I hope I never try any of these…
And of course the cork value rating…
5 Corks: A great buy. Keep plenty in stock and hope it ages really well.
4 Corks: A good value. Yeah, you might want to buy a case of it.
3 Corks: An average buy. You’re getting exactly what you paid for. Buy as the moment hits you.
2 Corks: Below average. It depends on your wine inventory. Just because it’s below average doesn’t mean it isn’t good wine. If you’re a wine collector this doesn’t really matter (you’re in a different league). But if you’re just an average wine drinker (like me) the higher the cork value the happier I am.
1 Cork: Way below average. Don’t waste your money when there is so much wine to choose from. Again, just because this is a low cork value doesn’t mean this isn’t a good wine, I would just prefer a better value for the wine I purchase.
Sorry, no wine review tonight but starting next week I hope to send you a “Saturday Sarsaparilla” each week in either an under $10 wine, $15 plus or minus, more than $20 wines, and over the $30 range I think are “deals” (according to my palate that is). I’ll attempt to get these “Saturday Sarsaparilla’s” out every Saturday but there’s no guarantee. Of course you never know what you’re getting when you open a new bottle of wine. There’s way too many factors in play here.
Here’s to good wine, good food, and good friends…