General Information:
In this blog, you will see three different icons used in most posts. Each has a different meaning for both narrative sections and wine prices.
Billy is the summary, just get to the point! On narratives, he will always come first. If all you want to know are the basics, then stop here. Where wine prices are concerned, he is $35.00 or less.
Steve is the descriptive section, more than just the basics, for those who really want to learn a bit about the topic being discussed. He always follows Billy. Where wine prices are concerned, he is $35.00 to $60.00.
Reginald III is the very detailed section, for those who want to read all about it, the sommelier level of information. He always follows Steve. Where wine prices are concerned he is $60.00 or more (but I usually stop at $200.00, on principle!).
Throughout each blog there will be references to any source of information that does not come from me. Below is a list of the ones I most commonly use, with their accompanying icon.
Glossary:
Wine Spectator (WS) – The “Gold Standard” (in my opinion) for all things wine. Much like Consumer Reports, it’s the one that everyone else imitates. They created the 100 point system for rating wine (that everyone else copies). If there are multiple “ratings” for a particular wine, theirs usually comes first.
James Suckling (JS) – He used to work for WS, until he went solo many years ago. In my opinion, he is not as prestigious as WS, but he rates a lot more wine than they do. For this reason, he is a must have #2. Most of the time, his ratings are higher than WS by 4-5 points.
Others – There are many others that rate wine. Some, in my opinion are OK, like Wine Enthusiast or Decanter. I generally ignore what they have to say about a wine, unless there is no rating from WS or JS. In that case, I will count how many of these others have chosen to rate the wine. If at least 4 have done so, than I will aggregate their ratings & take that into consideration.
World Atlas of Wine (WAoW) & Oxford Companion to Wine (OCtW) – These 2 books are encyclopedic references that all serious oenophiles (wine geeks) must have. I may occasionally refer to either of them. They share the same logo/ icon.
National Wine School (NWS) – This was the program that I did all of my sommelier coursework through. In the process, I took copious notes and will frequently refer to the knowledge I gained from them in various blog posts.
Now, you’re ready to get started. Enjoy!