I am asked often what my favorite wine is. Tough if not impossible query to answer as it’s dependent on so many different factors. What am I eating? What’s my mood? Who am I with? And the list goes on and on.

As a genuine lover of wine, I ask myself a rather different series of questions to weigh in on my ‘rating’ of a wine. First and foremost I ask myself, in the words of my good friend and fellow Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon, is the wine ‘good’? is it well made and balanced. Is the oak too much for the style? Is the acid in check with the wine’s texture and do all of the pieces come together harmoniously? Nothing should be out of whack or dramatically out of equilibrium. Or as I like to say simply, ’10 fingers and 10 toes’. Without this first critical factor a wine will have a difficult time making the grade for me.

Next I ask myself if the wine is varietally correct. That is to say does the wine taste of the grape or grapes from which it is made and of what it professes to be on its label? I am not a big fan of Sauvignon Blanc that tastes like Chardonnay or Pinot Noir that tastes like Syrah. I believe in ‘truth in advertising’ both for what I expect from a wine’s labeled framework and what I have paid to enjoy. Continue reading »