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My Ten Wine Rules!

  1. There is bad wine. Some wine is not good, which means it’s bad—poorly made, and it has flaws. It might be cheap, but it might also be expensive.  It doesn’t make you a snob to think a wine is bad.
  2. Not all expensive wine is good. You aren’t a low-class rube if you don’t drink $100 bottles all the time.  There is good wine that isn’t over-the-top expensive.  It’s not all about price.
  3. Some good wine is expensive. It IS sometimes about price…or more accurately, some good bottles do cost a lot. But $$$ doesn’t make it good just because it’s costly.
  4. Sometimes you just need a beer.  Wine drinkers drink a lot of wine.  Just have a beer some nights.  You’ll be glad you did. I just had a lovely IPA!
  5. Overoaked. Overripe. Over-alcohol-ed.  I’m over it.  See below.
  6. Robert Parker…isn’t you. He doesn’t count for any more than anyone else.  Maybe less.  He likes big oaky, fruity, and alcohol-y “bombs” (see above).  If you want to be like Parker, then drink just what he says. He puts numbers on everything, and you can use that. But if you want to be like you, make up your own mind and figure out what you like.
  7. Champagne is wine. Not pixie dust.  It’s very often Chardonnay, after all, just fermented a second time. It’s delicious, and yes maybe a little magical, but there’s no reason to it save for some far-off special occasion.  It’s a bottle of wine and you ought to just open it on Tuesday night. That can be a special night, anyway.  Wednesday is just a few hours away.
  8. Your Palate is where you taste.  Not on a shelf talker.  And it’s not just about the wine, but your taste buds, your sense of smell, your wine “memory,” how many wines you’ve tasted, etc. In other words, it’s not just the wine. It’s you.
  9. Wine is supposed to be fun.  That’s 99% of it. Memorizing European AOC place-names…isn’t fun.
  10. There are too many wine bloggers.  Amen. I will shut up now.
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