About 3 years ago, Julie and I discussed blogging about wine and food as they are both our passions. Being the good procrastinators that we are, we have finally decided to start with this year’s trip to Napa/Sonoma.

Since we are both WSET certified wine educators, we wanted this to be a blog about wines or spirits we like, but also the experiences we have drinking them. We will be blogging primarily about wine, whisky and food.

While the flavor of each of the items is important, the experience while drinking the wine or whiskey or eating the food is equally important to us. We also like to take into account whether the price or cost of the experience is commiserate with the value. Because of this, our opinions may be different than yours or others. That’s ok. It’s all about what you believe is best.

So, we’ve come up with a 5 wine bottle rating system for the wines and experiences for our blog. And, to make sure that you understand what we’re trying to do, we have rated the winery or restaurant overall, and rated the wine or whisky (and sometimes the food) individually. In general, here are some guidelines on how our ratings work:

 Means that we loved the whatever it is we are rating. The experience was topnotch, the food or beverage was excellent and the price was in line with what we’d pay.

 Means that we thought whatever we were rating was excellent, but there was something that didn’t push it over the top. Maybe the price was too high in our opinion. There was just something off that we thought didn’t warrant 5 bottles.

 Means that we liked, but it didn’t knock our socks off. If it was a beverage, maybe it was decent, but cost too much. At a restaurant,  maybe the food was good, but the service was poor. We’d think about going back or having the wine again, but it wouldn’t be our top choice.

 Means that we really didn’t enjoy the experience. Something just left a bad taste in our mouth (quite literally). What’s being rated wasn’t terrible, i.e., if someone bought me the wine, I’d drink it, or if someone wanted to take me back to the restaurant I would, but I’m not spending my money on it.

 Means that our experience was terrible. It was so bad that even if someone offered to take us again, we would probably say no.

As always, these are our opinions. Please feel free to ask questions or comments. We hope you enjoy!