I set out this year to try 1000 new wines. Bold, I know, but I tried 620 last year and I wanted to up the ante. This goal would also force me to rehydrate (pun intended) some tasing groups so that I could actually afford to taste this many wines!

Let’s do the math quickly, because, why not…

If the average bottle of wine I try is $60 then I’m spending $60,000 in wine. Nope, that can’t be the case. Let’s say I do 4 classes a month with 10 wine samples at $75/each. $3,600 for 480 new wines and…. ok stop doing the math, nobody feels better about this…

I thought it made sense to do a few check-ins this year as I go along this journey. Will I feel different after trying 1,000 wines in a year? Will I be smarter? Will I really be learning more?

30 wines in and I feel I’m starting to get a standard flow to how I rate them. Not just because I’m in WSET Level 2 classes so I’m trained to Look, See, Taste (sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol, body, flavor intensity, flavor characteristics, finish). I am trying to make sure I assess these qualities every single wine, every single rating.

30 wines in for 2021 and 650 wines into my wine studies and I struggle with remembering the exact color shades yet. I can NOT put names to smells. There are smells that I will remember for as long as I live but I can’t put words to it. I’m finding my vocabulary for tasting notes a little stuck. I find that after I rate the wine I will google what others say to learn a more robust way to describe what i’m experiencing.

I am still having a blast. I’m still figuring out which bank I’ll need to rob to do this!

Salut!