Want to know what me and my severe wine bug are about? Here you go:
- Wine really only needs to exist to bring fun and pleasure. That said if what is fun to you is to geek out on the vast knowledge base of the world's wines and therefore develop a bit of what appears to be snobbery, I can't blame you and don't hold it against you. If what is fun to you is to giggle, sip, and not think much about the wine except to recognize that French labels are WAY too confusing, cheers to you as well.
- Wine scores can provide a relevant context for a wine's quality, there are aspects of wine that can be quantified. But they inevitably leave out so much about the experience of wine they really should be taken less seriously. There are many perfectly pleasurable wines that will never receive a score, and plenty of highly rated wines that are only right for very specific situations. It quickly becomes a jumble of marketing, and styles, and trends, and debates over blind versus non-blind, and really rather boring. Use them for some initial frame of reference and then forget about them.
- There are a lot of facts in wine (i.e. a small percentage of cork has a compound that can ruin the wine in the bottle) but there are also a lot of opinions masquerading as facts. Part of the fun in wine is debating the virtues of any given aspect of grape growing, vinifcation, marketing, tastes, etc. However one should recognize when someone is selling you on their opinion by making you feel small about yours and argue back. It's a dynamic and interesting group of people involved in wine and the discussions around the subject are part of what make is so fun.
- Wine is completely addicting, and I'm not talking alcoholism here. Beware the bug that bites so many and turns small apartments into cellars with a couch, and every vacation into an event that requires a wine growing region. The disease can lead to things as unpleasant as divorce and cirrhosis, but is more likely to lead to a lifetime of interest, learning, and enjoying oneself.
- Debating the relevance of wine blogs diminishes wine discussion to an absurdly small definition. By this I mean, how can any person define what is a relevant discussion in the world of wine? I recognize that this wine blog is a citizen consumer's view on wine, with its own voice, own frame of reference, and probably a few inaccuracies along the way. Its relevance exists in the entertainment and information that it brings to those readers who wish to engage. That is the whole point.
There you go. This explains why I do this - because it is fun. It also shows you that I really enjoy the community of winos around me, and hope you join in the discussion here on The Vino File.
