About

ABOUT THE BLOG

This is not a blog about the wines that stand tall in the limelight; not about those cabernetsauvignons, chardonnays, merlots, sauvignonblancs and whatnot; not about wines that garner 100 Parker points every single vintage.

This is a blog about wines that too little have heard of; about grape varieties that don't have the reputation they should have; about wine regions that are overshadowed by their more prestigious neighbors; about wines that are from the dark side of the bunch.

What you'll find here are my personal insights to unique styles of wines, rare or otherwise unknown grape varieties and interesting producers. I don't want to follow any strict set of rules with my writing, so some posts will be reviews on a wine or two; some will be more focused on a specific grape variety; some will be on a specific producer or an interesting region. I try my best to write my posts to wine lovers of all levels, but as I love the technical aspects a lot, I am not going to deliberately dumb the posts down when going down to technicalities; if you find bits and pieces that are incomprehensible, please either ask for explanation in the comments section, or just jump down to the next paragraph that make sense!

I personally dislike awarding scores to wines, them being always so arbitrary and subject to constant variation; one day I might give the same wine 84 points, 93 points the other. However, I have noticed that most people love to see a concrete score that is easy to grasp at the end of a wine review, which is why I'll be giving points to the wines as well. Originally I was deliberating between the Parker-style scale of 50–100, the Decanter-style scale of 0–20 and the classic 0–5 scale, but in the end I stuck with the Parker scale – after all, in the world of wine, it is probably the best known scale, and it is also in use at cellartracker.com – probably the best wine-related site in the whole internet.

However, I'm not so dead-set on the 87–92 point; I am not averse to giving points over 95 to wines I truly  enjoy. I've also never understood how people can bash a wine they don't enjoy and then give the wine something like 87 points! To me, if a wine gets anything over 80, it is perfectly enjoyable. If a wine is something I wouldn't drink – or enjoy drinking – it would have to get something under 70, not something just under 90. In other words, I'm taking full advance of the whole scale. A wine that gets 89 from me is not an "undrinkable sub-90 wine", but instead a wine that is actually very good or close to excellent.

WHAT ABOUT THE TITLE PIC?

Yeah, well, I guess a sufficiently crappy but easily recognizable picture is a good way to stay in people's memory. Time will tell. Plus everybody loves Pink Floyd references, don't they?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am a Finnish wine and beer enthusiast in my early 30's. I've been into craft beers for a bit over 10 years now and into wine since 2010. Wine-wise I am mostly self-taught, but I have also completed Finnish sommelier studies (viinimestarikoulutus, "wine master's studies"; a study program somewhat equal to WSET Diploma) and I passed the WSET lvl. 3 Advance exam (without the actual course or any real preparations beforehand, if I may add!) with the grade pass with distinction.

I am not that into popular grape varieties and classical wine regions; instead, I find thrill and enjoyment in new and intriguing grape varieties and obscure wine regions. Wine-wise, my preferences lie in wines that are low-alcohol, high acid, moderate in extraction and preferable devoid of oak. Anti-Flavor Wine Elite, some might say. Although I enjoy all styles of wines from any possible wine-making country imaginable, I tend to favor wines made in cooler climates. So if you like your wines big and bold, full of chocolate and jammy notes, this blog might not cater to your tastes. However, if steely Rieslings, delicate Pinot Noirs and mineral Chenin Blancs ring your bell and the word "Franc" sounds way more exciting than "Sauvignon", this is your place!

I also write a wine blog in Finnish, titled Viinihullun päiväkirja, which is constantly one of the most-read and most acclaimed wine blogs in Finland, currently consisting of some 1,500 wine reviews. My focus is, and will be – at least for the time being – on that blog, this one being my special little outlet for writing in English and on something interesting enough.

You can contact me via my other blog's mail, which is viinihullunpaivakirja "at" gmail "dot" com. You'll find a rather random selection of my wine reviews at cellartracker.com written under the username crestfall.

A little list of keywords for wine and beer geeks who want to know my preferences real quick:

• Amphorae
• Aosta
• Beaujolais Crus
• Berliner Weisse
• Brettanomyces
• Cabernet Franc
• Château Musar
• Chenin Blanc
• Cornelissen, Frank
• Galicia
• Gamay
• Gose
• Grower Champagne
• Gueuze
• Jura
• Kvevri
• Lambic
• Massandra
• Mosel
• Nebbiolo
• Plavac Mali
• R. López de Heredia
• Ramisco
• Recaredo
• Santorini
• Sherry en Rama
• Taurasi
• Vin Jaune