There is a quiet moment in every vineyard. Perhaps it is early morning or just before the sun goes down. The rows are still. There is no tasting room, no label, no score, no expectations. There is only Terroir- the plant material, the soil, the weather, and all the human decisions and work from earlier in the day and days past. These moments remind me why I was drawn to wine in the first place.
The more I learn about wine, the more I realize that it is far more complex – and far more interesting – than a number!
Somewhere along the way, we started asking wine to answer questions it was never meant to answer. “Is it good enough? Is it worth the price? Did it receive a high enough score to merit such a high price? “
Totally understandable. Scores bring simplicity, they give us confidence … they also create a distance between us and the experience itself.
With thousands of bottles out in the market, hundreds of regions, and a language that can sometimes feel like it belongs to a group of insiders, simplicity is what we look for and need. Expertise and experience matter. The knowledge of growers, winemakers, sommeliers, and writers can teach us something valuable. The purpose of learning about wine should not be to replace our own judgement with someone else’s. The best kind of education is the one that does not tell us what to think but rather how to think.
Let’s observe, learn how to ask questions, how to notice ... let’s get comfy with our own response for a change!
This is why I created Beyond the Score- Wine without Numbers.
Not because scores have no value.
Not because experts have no place.
But because wine is too alive, too human, and too personal to be reduced to a number.
Wine inside a bottle contains a landscape, a season, series of choices, and in a way a moment of time. When we open a bottle, wine becomes something else: our experience. The same wine can tell different stories to different people. One person may notice fruit while another structure. Another person may recall a place, a meal, or a significant other or moment in life.
None of these experiences need permission to exist.
My goal with Beyond the Score is simple: To encourage people to understand wine deeply enough that they can trust themselves. I will explore the vineyard and the cellar. I will look at the science, the traditions, the myths, and the decision behind the bottle.
We will taste with curiosity and question assumptions. We will even experiment. Wine is a conversation… wine brings people and nature together. When everyone feels they are allowed to participate, the most interesting conversations arise.
Welcome to Beyond the Score- Wine without Numbers.
