Friday, December 31, 2004

First Time Here?

Welcome to you!

The Wine Cask Blog is a blog about wine. But you probably got that from the title. While we will occasionally also mention wine paraphenalia, wine books, wine articles, wine gifts, wine vacations and wine gee-gaws, we focus on the wine itself. We represent your average consumers who live in three distinct parts of the country. We are not affiliated in any way with the Wine Cask company in California.

PB lives in northern New England and is the most studied with over 25 years in the hobby but has never had the luxury of an abundance of discretionary funds so his real experience, though vast, lies with the inexpensive end of the wine spectrum.

NW lives in the southern New England and though is a relatively new enophile (lover of wine) he already has a more expansive experience with wines on the upper end of the spectrum than PB.

Billy is a true novice to the glorious field of enology-the study of wine-in every sense of the word and lives in the Upper Mid-West region of the United States.

All three writers travel around the country for their occupations (non-profit, financial sector, software development respectively) and take the time to sample local vintages wherever possible.

Wine is a subjective study. Sure there are objective elements to the process of vinification (wine making) and tasting, but the bottom line is personal taste and preference. If there is an axiom you should etch on your tongue it is this: You like what you like! If that happens to be a White Zin (short for Zinfandel which is a grape type) that costs you $6 a bottle and you really don't enjoy a great Shiraz (another type of grape) that costs you three times that, you'd be foolish to throw your money away on the latter.

We'll try to make it convenient to find what you are looking for specifically and of course, you can always e-mail us. This is purely a hobby and there are times when some of the statistical or historical information may be less than accurate since some of our entries may be coming from memories that are 25 years old or more in the case of PB.

So enjoy your search and if you happen to stumble on to what you think is a great value in a wine, by all means share it with the rest of us.

So pour a splash, raise a glass and Here's to ya!