WINE & PHILOSOPHY–“The Book”

  • CHAPTERS Of The PHILOSOPHY BOOK
    1. What is Philosophy & Wine?
    2. Philosophy Question
    3. Contentious Issues

1) WHAT Is PHILOSOPHY & WINE?

PHILOSOPHY– These “Philosophy Pop-Ups” Are Scattered Throughout DtheV.com, This is Where I Want to Stimulate Thought by Posing Thoughtful Questions That Are Meant to Be Pondered While Drinking Wine or Sitting In Traffic.

PHILOSOPHY- The Study of Knowledge, Reality and Existence.

  • Wine & Philosophy Looks Into the Perception, Attention and Appreciation of Wine and the Relationship Between Wine and Our Experiences.

METAPHYSICS OF WINE- Branch of Philosophy Concerned With Explaining the Fundamental Nature of Being and the World That Encompasses it.

“I Want to Use “The Vine” as a Catalyst to Explore Wine’s Deeper Meaning, and Significance Within Me Personally and In Different Wine Cultures of the World.”

WINE And The FACILITATION Of THOUGHT

  • Ancient Greeks Placed a High Value On the Importance of wine. Not Only On the Drunkenness That Wine Induced But Also the Idea of Wine On Society as a Social Lubricant. Drinking Wine Provides an Occasion For Pleasure, But Also Provides an Opportunity For Thought. Wine Was Thought to Facilitate Dialogue In Social Settings and Bring Groups to a Reasoned Conclusion.
    SYMPOSIUM- A Structured Party by Early Greek Philosophers to Encourage Discussion While Displaying Responsible Drinking.

    • The Event is Lead by a Symposiark, a Leader In Charge of Moderating the Symposium, Mixing, and Serving the Wine. He is Also Responsible For Drunkenness and When It’s Perceived That Everyone Had Enough Wine the Symposiark Takes Away the Wine Bowls For Fear of Over Intoxication.
    • Everyone In Attendance One by One Would Stand Up and Resight: a Poem, Makes a Political Statement, and Then Attempt to Make Everyone Laugh.
  • For Thousands of Years Friendships Have Been Built, Romance Kindled, Stories Shared and Moments Celebrated Around a Bottle of Wine. Somewhere Between Sober and Intoxicated is a Truthful Personal Zone That Renders Us Philosophical, Excited, Passionate, and a Favorable Wine Score Has Nothing to Do With That.
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Wine and the Birth of Western Civilization.”
    • “This Started In Ancient Egypt, Greece and Truly Formalized In Roman Times.  Drinking Wine Had a Profound Effect On the Evaluation of Man, His Thinking and Thus the Birth of Western Civilization.  Scholars and Philosophers of the Day Such as Homer, Plato and Aristotle, Followed by Historians, Poets, Artists and Architects, All Used Wine as the “Lubricate” to Influence or Were Influenced by Wine. The People of the Mediterranean Basin Began to Emerge From Barbarism When They Learned to Cultivate, Produce, Respect and Orderly Consume Wine.  Along the Way Wine Went From a Drink of Diet and Nutrition to the Conduit of Change In the Way Man Saw and Felt About the World.  This Sprang the Beginning of Western Philosophy and Civilization. Wine Was an Initial Umbrella That Lead Men and Women to Ask “Why”, Critically Think, Reflect, Plan, Organize, and Question In Turn This Ushered In the Age of Enlightenment.”

INTOXICATION vs. DRUNKENNESS

  •  WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Participation In Wine Culture?”
    • “Does Participating In Wine Culture: Going to Wineries, Walking the Vineyards and Reading Up On Current Wine Magazines Share the Same Effect as a Baseball Fanatic Who Goes to Baseball Stadiums, Watches Games, Reads Up On Sport Pages and Following the Players Closely.  Drinking Wine is More Than Drunkenness, It’s the Intoxication of the Idea of the Experience of Drinking Wine. (A Definable Physiological Condition).  Even Void of Drinking the Wine There’s a Happy, Excited and Connection Feeling to a Bigger Thing/ Cult That Can Be Perceived as Intoxication.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Wine & Emotions?”
    • “Can a Wine’s Aroma or Taste Bring Out an Emotional Response?  Similarly to the Sight of a Sunset or Landscape Can Visually, or a Sound of Special Song Can Audibly?  Aroma is a Major “Trigger” of Memories, and Memories Are Attached to Emotions.  So Drinking and Smelling a Certain Wine Can Bring You Back to a Place, Time, or Event That You Shared With Someone Special…and Sometimes the Emotion That a Wine Brings Can Even Lead to a Tear.”

WINE And The QUESTION Of TASTE

  • Liking the Attributes of Wine is and Should Be Subjective, Personal and a Matter of Individual Experience. Evaluating a Wines Quality and Structure Should Objective and Never Be Personal.
  • Personal Taste is More Relevant Than Quality In Choosing a Wine For Yourself.
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can the Totality of the Wine Be Experience Be Greater Than the Wine Itself?”
    • “A Good Example of This is Bird Watching, With the Anticipation, Recognizing and Identifying.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Someone Who’s a Experienced Wine Drinker or Evaluator Enjoy the Wine More/ Better Because of Their Developed Heightened Senses and Knowledge of a Wines Back-Story?”
    • “Having a Deep Interest In Wine, Knowing the Backstory and Following the Wine World Can Give the Wine Drinker a Greater Enjoyment or Experience.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Unusual Wine Scents?”
    • “Are There Some Scents In the Wine World That Are Coveted by One Persons Palate and Disgusted by Another Person?”
      • Cat Piss- Sauvignon Blanc From Marlborough
      • Sweaty Saddle- Chateauneuf-du-Pape
      • Manure- Pinot Noir From Burgundy
      • Diesel/ Petrol- Riesling From Mosel
      • Roasted Animal- Syrah From Northern Rhone Valley
      • Band-Aid- Brettanomyces/ Chateau Musar
      • Tar- Nebbiolo From Barolo
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “What’s the Most Important Piece of Information On the Wine Label?  Is it the Winery, the Wine Maker, the Grape Variety, the Vineyard, the Region/ Appellation, the Price, the Vintage, the Label Art?  
    • “I Believe the Most Important Piece of Information On the Wine Label is the Grape Variety the Wine Produced With and the Region/ Appellation Those Grapes Were Grown In.  Both of These Things Are Regulated and Legally Binding.”

SUBJECTIVITY vs. OBJECTIVITY

“De Gusibus Non Est Disputandum.”  “In Matters of Taste there is No Disputing.”

OBJECTIVITY- Unbiased, Non-Prejudice, Ambivalent
SUBJECTIVITY- Refers to How Someone’s Judgment is Shaped by Their Personal Opinion, Feeling, Likes, Beliefs and Disbelief.

  • Objectivity and Subjectivity Have Always Been a Contentious Issue at the Center of Philosophy, and Plays Important Roll In Tasting and Evaluating Wine. There Should be a Clear Separation Between Describing How a Wines Taste, Figuring Out if You Like the Wine Personally and Assessing a Wines Quality. Personal Likes and Dislikes Sub-Consciously Effect Preferences but Shouldn’t Effect Assessment or Judgement of a Wine. A Wines Structure and Flavors Aren’t Subjective but Whether a Taster Likes or Appreciates a Certain Wine is Subjective.

“I Declare No Subjective Judgements On Wine, Wineries, or Regions I Just State What is. The Information I Compiled In Demystify “The Vine” is Organized In Purely Objective Manner.”

EMOTIONS AND WINE–  I Do Want to Like This Wine, I Don’t Want to Like This Wine.

WINE And The QUESTION Of QUALITY

“A Wine’s Quality Should Never Be a Personal Opinion or a Guess.”

  • The Overall Quality of Wine Produced Throughout the World Today is the Best it Has Ever Been and It’s Getting Better with Every Vintage as More Producers are Consciously Setting Their Eyes On Making Wine of Better Quality.
  • Chemist Describes by Scientific Analysis the Way the Wine is…
  • Evaluator Describes the Quality of the Wine…
  • Taster Describes if They Personally Like the Wine…
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “How’s Wine Quality Assessed?”
    • “A High Quality Wine is Complexed and Balanced With Good Length and a Long Finish,  All While Showing Terroir or a Sense of the Place.  Generally Everything is Pronounced, and On a Grander Scale, Exhibiting and Enhanced Spectrum of Flavors, and Increased Aromatic Levels.  Quality Wine Show True Varietal Characteristics and Usually Are Produced by Reputable Winemakers Produced From Grapes Grown In Regions With a Pedigree For Making Great Wine.”
  • **Refer to “WINE EVALUATION/ WINE-Quality” For Detailed Information.

REDUCTIONISM– Science of Dissecting a System Into its Components Parts and Then Studying These Parts In Detail.

**Refer to “BEGINNING/ THE STUDY OF WINE” For Detailed Information

The QUESTION Of PERCEPTION

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “If You Know a Wines Scored a 96 Point Before You Taste and Evaluate it Will It Effect Your Enjoyment or Rating? How About Price?”
    • YES…“Having a “Preconceived  Notice” Prior to Tasting a Wine Can Have an Effect On the  Evaluation of That Wine.”
  • OTHER INFLUENCES ON PERCEPTIONS
    • Color   |   Smell   |   Terroir
    • Screw-Top   |   Produced   |   Label
    • Price   |    Wine Score    |   Location
    • Back Story
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can a Heightened Experience Make an Average Wine Good or Seem Better Than it Was?”
    • “Drinking the House Wine at a Sidewalk Cafe In Florence, Italy Always Seems to Taste Better Compared to Drinking the Same Wine Out of a Straw-Fiasco Bottle at Home.  Some Other Examples Are; Drinking Average Box Wine On a Backpacking Trip Deep In the Wilderness.  Drinking Wine With a Beautiful Women You’re In Love With.  Drinking With Jesus at the Last Supper When He Turned Water Into Wine..”

“I’ve Become Intellectual and Philosophical About “The Vine” and I’m Constantly Researching and Investigating Its Hidden Meanings.”

2) PHILOSOPHY-QUESTIONS

“The Purpose of These Questions Are to Discuss Wine  In a Complex Way and to Challenge the Way We Drink and See “The Vine”. All of These Philosophy Questions and Contentious Issues Can Be Found In Their Home Chapters With Pertinent Context That Make Them Thoughtful.”

VITICULTURE

GEOGRAPHY

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Should a Wine Maker and Grape Grower Need to Communicate During the Growing Season to Produce the Correct Style and Best Wine Possible?”
    • “The Grower/ Wine Producer Need to Be “In Sink” When It Comes to Pruning  Yields and Brix Levels at Harvest.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “When Thinking of Burgundy as a Whole is it Better to Think of it as 3 Separate, Distinct Regions(Chablis, Central Burgundy, Beaujolais) Rather Than Burgundy as One?”
    • “Due to Its Three Separate Area All Distinct as to Geography, Topography, Viticulture and Viniculture Practices We as Wine Professionals and Connoisseur Should Refer to Chablis and Beaujolais Separate as to the Overall Identity of Burgundy.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Grapes Don’t Know Geographic Boundaries?”
    • “The Grape Vine Doesn’t Know or Understand Geographic Boundaries. For Example the Albarino  Grape Has Been Growing On the Iberian Peninsula For Thousands of Years.  During the 1800’s the Governments of Spain and Portugal Put In the What is the Boundary Between the Countries.  The Grape Doesn’t Know the Boundary, It Only Knows That It is of the Iberian Peninsula.”
  • WINE PHILOSOPHY? “Chablis’s Location?”
    • “Due to Its Location In Northern/Central France, its, Topography, Similar Soils and Climates Chablis Should Be Considered Part of the Eastern Loire Valley or Part of the Champagne and Not Part of Burgundy. (Does Chablis Produce the Still Whites of Champagne?)”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Is the Vineyard On a Hillside, High Flat Plateau or a High Altitude Region?”
    • “The Central Plateau In Spain Where Ribero del Duero Sits is at 2,500 But is Flat and Lacks A lot of the Advantages of a High Altitude Region and Must Be Thought of Differently.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is it Important to Associate Soils With Geologic Time Periods/ Stages/ Ages?”
    • “It’s Important to Know Where the Rocks Came From and Also Realize What the Kind of Soil the Rock has Broken Down Into.”

GRAPE GROWING

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “10,000 Grape Varieties?”
    • NO…“The Wine World Generally Accepts That There’s Over 10,000 Grape Varieties But Are There Really?  As of 2023 I Can Only Find, and Classify 2,275   Different Grapevines Grown Around the World.  If Some Organization Can’t Come Up With an Official List or Un-Official List of All the Different Grapes Varieties We Should Continue to Remain Skeptical.   In the Meanwhile My “Grapes of the World” Catalog On DtheV.com Should Continue to Be Seen the “Benchmark” and I Will Use My Estimation of 3,500.”
    • YES…“Google States Without Evidence That There Are Over 10,000 Grape Varieties and Someone Would Be a Fool to Try to Find and Catalog Them All.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Phylloxera In Napa Valley?”
    • “Was Phylloxera Actually a Good Thing For Napa Valley Wine?  Phylloxera Was Called “The Biggest Catastrophe In the History of Napa Valley Wine.” In the Wake of the Phylloxera Epidemic That Ravaged the Vines In the Valley Between 1989 & 1994 Grape Growers Got a Chance to Take a Strong Look at Their Viticultural Practices. During the Replanning and Replanting Phase Growers Took the Opportunity to Replant Their Vineyards With the Correct Varieties, On the Correct Rootstock, In the Correct Climates, With the Correct Row Orientation and Vine Spacing. (No More Pinot Noir Planted In Calistoga or Cabernet Sauvignon Grown In Carneros.) Overall There’s Nothing Good About an Insect Devastating the Majority of Vineyards In a Wine Region and the Peoples Livelihood That is Associated With Wine But…Was This a Silver Lining?”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “With 2,250 Grape Varieties to Choose From Should We Try to Breed New Grapes?”
    • “There is Always a Chance to Find New Quality Grapes.  Grapes With Greater Resistance and Lessor Susceptible to Viticulture Challenges.  And the Chance to Find a New Grape Just Taste Better.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can/ Should a 400 Acre Vineyard Be Entirely Planted to One Grape?”
    • “Many Vineyards In France In Particular Are Planted to the Same Grape.  I Feel There Should Be at Least a Few Rows Planted to Something Else.  How Can We Find Out What Else Will Thrive In That Same Terroir if We Don’t Experiment.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Did A Variety of Issues Lead the Phylloxera Out-Break of the 1980’s In California?”
    • “Irrigation Which Was Introduced In the 1970’s Didn’t Challenge the Roots to Go Deep In Search of Water Which Was Readily Available at the Surface. This Coupled With the Massed Produced AXR-1 Rootstock Which Was Promoted by UC. Davis as Phylloxera Resistant Was Not.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is it Wrong or Difficult to Generalize an Entire Vintage For a Region?”
    • “The Quality of a the Grapes Grown In Calistoga In Northern Napa Will Be Different Than the Overall Quality of Grapes Grown In Carneros In Southern Napa 20 Miles South. Also the Overall Quality of the Chardonnay Vintage In Burgundy One Vintage Might Be Poor But the Pinot Noir Grown In the Same Region Might Be Seen as Superb.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is France Doing a Disservice to Its Wine Producing Future by Not Allowing the Experimentation of Planting Different Varietals In Different Regions?”
    • “Unlike Most of the New World Where Winemakers Are Free to Pursue and Experiment With Different Grapes In Different Appellation and Geography France Generally Has to Plant What Has Been Permitted For Centuries.  In France the Rules Where Created to Preserve the Tradition of an Appellation’s Specificities and Characteristics.  This Stifles the Advancement of Wine Through Experimentation Due to Their Strict Guidelines. As a Result In the Past Few Decades Many French Wine Makers Have Come to American to Pursue Less Restricted Wine Making.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should Wine Regions Outside of Europe Who Are Pressured to Plant Certain Varieties Abandon Commercially Popular Grape and Focus On Other Grapes Which Aren’t as Popular But Might Grow Better In That Particularly Environment?”
    • “In a Saturated Wine World With There is Not Shortage of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon New Regions Should Focus On Producing New Flagship Grapes to Promote Their Region.”
        • ~Example~ Rouge Valley AVA. Focusing On Vermentino
            • Empqua Valley AVA. Focusing On Tempranillo
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “The Ash From Fires In Wine Area and Around Vineyards is Bad, But is the Ash the Fires Leave Behind a Good Thing For the Overall Soils In the Vineyard?”
    • “No Question Fires Around Vineyards is Bad and it Leads to Smoke Taint Which Ruins Wine, But the Regeneration That Ash Brings to the Soils Profile Can Be Seen as a Positive Thing.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Climate or Soil?”
    • “What’s More Important For a Vineyards Success; Matching the Proper Grape Varietal to the Climate or the Soil? This Issue is Greatly Debated.  I Think a Grapevine Will Grow Anywhere, Even In a Crack In the Sidewalk, But Without Proper Sunlight and a Beneficial Climate the Vine Has No Chance to Grow, Prosper and Definitely Will Not Grow to Its Full Potential.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can an Estate Be Non-Monocultural or Can you Even Have a Vineyard at All Without a Consistent, Cheap/ Free, Easy Water Supply?”
    • “I Had to Stop Growing Everything But Grapes Because I Didn’t Have an Abundant Water Supply. It One Thing to Say You Want to Be a Non-Monocultural Estate But Where Do You Get the Water? In My Experience My 20 Vegetable Plant Took Up 20 Times the Water That My 200 Vines Needed. On Some Level You Can and Want to Dry-Farm Your Grapes the Best You Can, But Its Impossible to Dry-Farm Tomatoes.”

GRAPE GROWING– Organic/ Sustainable/ Bio-Dynamic

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Is it Better to try to Think of Bio-Dynamics From a Quality Point of View and Not a Philosophic View?”
    • “If You Get too Prescriptive and Blindly Follow the Lunar Calendar You Aren’t Opening Your Eyes to the Perfect/ Idea Condition In Your Specific Vineyard Which May Be Slightly Off From the Lunar Cycle.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “What Can You Do if You’re Farming Organically or Following Bio-Dynamic Principles and Your Neighbor is Not?”
    • “If Someone is Spraying a Un-Organic  Substance On the Vineyard Next to Yours It Could  Have a Negative Effect.“
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can You Machine Harvest Your Vineyard and Still Be Considered Bio-Dynamic?”
    • “Certain Vineyards In Chablis Are Certified “Bio-Dynamic” and Machine Harvest Their Vineyards.  Their Thought Process is That It Takes 4 Hours to Hand Harvest Something That Takes 30 Minutes to Machine Harvest.  That 3.5 Hours That the Grapes Are Subject to Oxidation/ Compromise. Is This Justified and Can They Still Be Considered Bio-Dynamic.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “On a Biological Level “Mined Sulfur” and “Bi-Product Sulfur” Are Exactly the Same. Wouldn’t it Be Better to Use the Bi-Product Sulfur Rather Than the Mined Sulfur Which has to Be Shipped From Europe and Leaves a Greater Carbon Footprint On the Environment?”
    • “Sometimes What is Organic and What Makes the Most Sense Lead to Different Outcome.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “If a Wine Maker Follows Organic or Bio-Dynamic Principles But Doesn’t Get Certified is That Producer Organic or Bio-Dynamic?”
    • “In Order to be Organic or Bio-Dynamic the Grape Grower or Wine Producer Must be Certified by a Reputable Organization. That Being of Said, Certification is a Piece of Paper, There are Many Growers and Producers Who Don’t Pay Money Annually to Get Certified But Do Everything That’s Required.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Being Organic In Europe the Same Thing as Being Organic In America?”
    • “Europe Has Dropped Organic Standards and Have “Looser” Restrictions On Organic Wine Making. The Use of Sulfur is Allow and a Wine Can Still Be Labeled “Organic”, While In the USA. any Use of Sulfur During Wine-Making Disallowed the Moniker or “Organic.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Natural Wine More Alive Than Conventional Wine?”
    • “Natural Wine Looks Different/ More Alive Under a Microscope. It’s Microbial Super Healthy.   All Wines Are Alive at One Point, Natural Wine is Just More Alive Than Conventional Wine.  Natural Wine is More Alive With Remarkable Energy and Tension.”

TERROIR

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “In Order to Better Understand the Concept of Terroir Does One Needs to Mentally Visualize the Geography, Topography and Climate of a Vineyard in a 3-D?”
    • “Terroir is a Concept That Needs to Be Understood and Comprehend On a Greater Scale.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Does Cheese and Olive Oil Have Terroir?”
    • “Just as Grapes Are Influenced by the Phenomena of Terroir Can Other Products Also Be Influenced?  Most Agricultural Products Do Experience Terroir. Olive Oil Produced In Italy Will Show Variations In Style and Quality From the Same Type of Olives In Grown In Various Regions and Conditions Across Italy.  The Effects of Terroir On Agricultural and Livestock is Also Evident In Products Such as Cheese, Chicken, Meats, Fruits and Vegetables.  As a Results These Products Just Like Grapes Possess Their Own AOP./ PDO./ DOC.’s In Italy, France and Across Europe.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Like Terroir In Vineyards, Can Bodegas In the Sherry Triangle Exhibited Individual Terroir?”
    • “There Can Be Two Different Forces Effecting This. “Outside the Bodegas and Inside the Bodegas.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Can Human Influence Be Considered Part of Terroir?” 
    • “Terroir is All Things by Nature. The Human Factor Which Plays an Important Part of Wine Making is All Styles and Preference.  Mans Contribution In the Vineyard, Viticultural Choices and Decisions Isn’t Considered Terroir. The Choices In the Vineyard and Winery Can Bring Out Subtleties In Terroir or Hide Them.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should the Human Factor Be Considered Part of Terroir?”
    • “Terroir is the Natural Environment the Vines Grow In and Shouldn’t Be Influenced by the Human Factor. The Less Human Influence That the Grapes See the More the Terroir Can Come Through.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Wild/ Native Yeast Part of a Wines Terroir?”
    • “Killing Off of Native Yeast Only to Inoculate the Must with a Cultured Yeast is Taking Away Part a the Wines True Terroir.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “In Order to Produce a Truly Terroir Driven Wine Should Fermentation Take Place Within the AOC./ AVA./ DOC. Boundaries With Native Yeasts?”
    • “If You Harvest the Grapes and Truck Them to Another Area and Ferment Them With Yeast After Kill Off the Native Yeast You Are Going to Produce a Completely Different Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Does a Wine-Maker Need to Use Native/ Wild Yeast Indigenous to the Grapes Region to Be Considered a Natural Wine and Be Part of a Vineyards Terroir?”
    • “The True Representation of a Natural Wine and Terroir Needs to Include Native Yeast.  The Act of Killing Off Native Yeast Only to Inoculate it With a Cultured Yeast is Unnatural.  As a Result One Winery’s Wine Can Smell and Taste Completely Different From Their Neighbors Estate Wine Even if the Vineyards and Grapes Are Identical.  This Isn’t a Accurate Portrayal of a Vineyards True Terroir.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is the AOC., DOC., AVA. a Anti-Fraud System For Wine, That Defines, Protects and Guaranty Certain Aspects of the Wine Industry?”
    • “The Appellation System Was Born In the Wake of Grape Grower and Wine Producers Doing Shady Things In the Wine Industry That Compromised the Wine and Deceived the Wine Consumer.  The System Has Done a Great Job to Combat These Issues That Were Plaguing the Wine World.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can an Educated Wine Professional/ Sommelier Pick Out Natural Wines In a Blind Tasting Among Conventional Wines?”
    • “This is Debatable, There Are Things About Natural Wine That Might Stand Out When Blind Tasting: Natural Yeast, Enhance Texture, Tension In the Wine.”

HISTORY

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Can We Think of All the Wine From the Ancient Wine as Regional, Meaning a Country or Region Only Produced 1 or 2 Styles of Wine Base On Region or Geography?”
    • “In a Time When There Was Limit Grape Varietals and Wine Making Techniques Regions Usually Produced a Couple or Few Wines That Were Distict to the Local Area They Were Produced.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Can We Trace the Evolutionary Trail of Vitis Venifera From It’s Beginning Origins Through its History of Splitting Into Different Major Progenitors Across Multiple Continents and Countries Into the 2,000+ Grapes Varietals That Make Up the Wine World Today?”
    • “The First Appearance of a Vine Later Named Vitis Vinifera Sylvetris Appeared 200-Million Year Ago. All Grapes Today Are Descended From This Single “Vitis Vinifera” Wild-Grape Variety. The Caucasus Mountains In Mesopotamia(Now Georgia) Are Origin of Vitis Vinifera. Over Time Vines, Wines and Viticulture Spread South Down the Tigris River and Euphrates Rivers to the Larger Cities of the Earliest Civilizations of Babylon and Persia(Now Iran). This Area Became Center of Ancient Grape Growing World. Eventually Wine Spread to Egypt, Who Introduced Wine to Greece, Who Introduced Wine to the Romans, Who Introduced Wine to the Rest of Europe, Who Introduced Wine Throughout the Modern New World.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Wine Has Historically Always Been Totally Natural, When Did Wine Producers Start Making Conventional Wines?”
    • “Around the Start of the 1900’s Grape Grower and Wine Producers Started Using Pesticides and Other Non-Natural/ Organic Practices In Their Vineyards and Wineries as a Mean to Produce More Wine Easier.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “How Did the Spread of Aromatized Wines Happen?”
    • “There Are 2 Theories to How the Culture of Aromatized Wine Spread.”
      • 1) The World and Its Different Wine Cultures Started Aromatizing Its Wine Independently to Each Other.
      • 2) Aromatized Wine Went In a Linear Starting In China and Worked Its Way Westward.

VINICULTURE

WINE MAKING

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Certain Quinta Calling Their Port Vintage Every Year Diminish Vintage Port Dating During Truly Vintage Years?”
    • “In the Absence of Binding Vintage Regulation, Lessor Integrity Quintas Always Calling Their Port Vintage Lessons the Years When a Harvest is Truly Vintage.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is it Alright to Grow Grarrique Herbs Between Vine Rows Knowing That it Will End Up Part of the Terroir and Eventually Show In the Vine? If So is it Alright to Steep or Infuse Wine with Garrique Herbs Before Bottling?”
    • “Things Grown “In Nature” or In Your Vineyard That Will Influence Your Vines/ Wine is Fine.  Adding Things to Your Wine After Harvest Isn’t the Best Idea, Unless You State On the Bottle That There Was Something Added to the Final Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Why Should a Wine Maker Be Famous or Highly Thought of For What They Didn’t Do to a Wine and Have No Mention of the Vineyard Which Did Most of the Work?”
    • “I Went to a Wine Tasting In Which Every One Was Raving About the Wine Maker and His Ability to Use Minimal Intervention to Produce the Wine.  When I Asked Where the Grapes Where Sourced From No One Had Any Idea About the “Declassified/ Vin de France” Wine.  When I Stated That the Winemaker Should Have Little Infamy and the Brilliance of the Wine Lies In the Unknown Vineyard/ Region I Was Looked at With Great Distain and Misunderstanding.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does a Certain Wine Style or Vinification Process Play a Part In Assessing the Quality of a Wine?”
    • “Style or Vinification Process Shouldn’t Be Confused With Quality, But the History or Back Story Behind a Wine Style Can and Should Be Taken Into Consideration With Evaluating the Overall Enjoyment or Education Aspect of a Wine or a Growing Region.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Are Some Grapes Destined to Become Rose Wines or Are Most Grapes Used For Rose Harvest “Seconds” or Grapes of Lower Quality That Didn’t Ripen or Develop Well?”
    • “The Best Roses Are Grown With the Forethought In the Vineyard and Great Attention to Detail In the Winery With the Intention of the Grapes Being Grown to Be Destined For the Production of Rose.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does the Color of the Rose Effect the Quality of the Wine?”
    • “The Different Shades of Rose Can Be From the Different Grapes Used or Different Rose Production Processes.. A Rose Too Dark In Color Can Mean It Was Macerated For Too Long, Losing Its Elegance.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Rose Wine Age Well?”
    • “Due to the Lack of Skin Contact Rose Does Not Age Well.  While Most Posses Increased Acidity Which Helps the Aging Process, Rose After a Couple of Year Lose Their Freshness.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What’s the Most Important Quality For a Wine to Age?”
    • “Is it Tannins, Acidity, Sugar or Something Else.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Are Great Vintages to Drink Now (2-5 Years) Different From Great Vintages From Wine That is Meant to Be Aged (10+ Years)?”
    • “Sometimes the Hot Vintages Are Not the Best For Aging Wines. While They Lead to Wines That Are Ripe and Fruit Forward Early, They Lack the Acidity Which is Beneficial For Long Term Aging.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should There Be Mandatory Labeling On Wines Stating All of the Ingredients Naturally Occurring or Added During the Wine Making Process?”
    • “Natural and Organic Wine-Makers Are Pushing For Transparent Labeling For all Ingredients Put Into Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Why Are Wine Producers Declassifying Their Wines and Placing Them In a Lessor Wine Category?”
    • “Many Wine Producers, (Especially In France) Risk Losing Their Appellation Produced Wine Status Because of the Minimally Invasive Wine Making Techniques Followed In Natural Wine Making. These Producers Are Instead Turning to the Vin de Table, Vin de Pays or Equivalents In Order to Get Out of the Constraints of Conventional Appellation Viticulture.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “In Reality is There a “Sliding Scale” of Naturalness and Low Intervention Wine Making?”
    • “I Don’t Care if the Grape Grower or Wine Producer Uses Some Natural Element or Technology to Enhance Their Wine. All Natural Wine Producers Start the Wine Making Process with Zero Intent On Intervening with Native Yeast Fermentation, Un-Fined, Unfiltered, No Sulfur Use, Minimal Vineyard Intervention. But Usually Commercial Yeast and Sulphur are Near to Make Corrections if Needed. Even With the Purest of Intent a Little Intervention is Always Better Than Losing a Vintage.”

WINE DRINKING

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can a Vine Uptake Minerality of the Soil and Display Them Through the Wine?”
    • “I Believe So, If the Vines Roots Are In the Soil and Its Essence Comes Though In Its Wine. Although Subtle the Educated Wine Person Picks Up On Minerality.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Wine Alive or Dead When We Drink it?”
    • “Grapes Are Alive On the Vine, During Fermentation a Wine is Alive. Wine is a Living Breathing Thing.  What About After 5 Years In Bottle, After 10 Years or 25 Years. At Some Time Can a Wine Be Declared Dead.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Knowing the Price of a High End Wine Before Consumption Going to Produce a Placebo Effect?”
    • “Often Knowing the Price of a Wine (Say $150 From a Famous Producer) Will Often Mentally Encourage the Drinker to Like the Wine or Except it as a Great Wine They Should Like.  The Same Effect is True When You Know the Price of a $10 Wine Before Consumption.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “How Much Wine Does it Take to Feel Buzzed? To Get Drunk?”
    • “Two Full Sipes of Wine Give Me the Lightest Possible Buzz.  A Half Glass Will Give Me a Buzz.  Three Glass of Wine Get Me Really Buzzed, One Full Bottle Gets Me Drunk.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is a Wines That You Drink On Location Better or Taste Different Than the Same Wine When You Drank it at Home?”
    • “While the Wine Isn’t Necessarily Better, the Ambiance and the Intoxication of an International Setting Might Make the Wine, Food and Company Seem Better.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What’s the Different Between When Can I Drink a Wine vs. When Should I Drink a Wine?”
    • “Wine Can Be Consumed the Day the Wine is Released. When Should You Drink a Wine is a Personal Decision.  A Red Wine is Usually Not at It’s Best On Release, In Many Occasion the Wine Will Benefit From a Few Years of Aging or In Some Other Cases 1o-20 Years Later.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Someone Who’s a Experienced Wine Drinker or Evaluator Enjoy the Wine More/ Better Because of Their Developed Heightened Senses and Knowledge of a Wines Back-Story?”
    • “Having a Deep Interest In Wine, Knowing the Backstory and Following the Wine World Can Give the Wine Drinker a Greater Enjoyment or Experience.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “A Wines Aroma and Taste Can Bring Out an Emotional Response the Same Way a Landscape Can Visually or a Song Can Audibly?”
    • “Aroma is a Major “Trigger” of Memories, and Memories Are Attached to Emotions. So Smelling a Wine Can Bring You Back to a Place or a Time a Year or a Decade Ago.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What’s the Most Important Piece of Information On a Wine Label…Winery,  Wine Maker, Grape Variety, Vineyard, Region/ Appellation, Price, Vintage, Label Art?”
    • “I Believe the Most Important Piece of Information On a Wine Label is the Appellation, Which is Usually Legally Binding.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Binge Drinking Wine?”
    • “Is Binge Drinking Wine In the Proper Setting or Conditions Acceptable?  Yes…As Part of a Safe and Responsible Wine Festival or Wine Tasting Event Acute Binge Drinking In the Effort to Benefit From Gaining Wine Knowledge is Lightly Accepted.  Think of it as Over Consumption In the Name of Wine Education.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is There a Psychological Effect to Decanting Wine and Drinking it From the Decanter?”
    • “The Act of Decanting a Wine and Waiting to Drink it Will Make the Wine Seem Slightly Better In Your Mind. Decanting a Wine Will Have a Tangible Effect On the Wine That Can Be Smelled and Tasted.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do We Drink Our Red Wines to Warm and Our White Wines Too Cold?”
    • “People Should Drink Wine at the Exact Temperatures They Like.  If  They Enjoy White Wines Overly Chilled With Ice-Cubes, or if  They Enjoy There White Wine and Room Temperature  Both of  These Are Fine.  This is True Unless They Are Passive Drinker and Are to Lazy to Adjust Their Wine to the Proper Temperature.”
    • “Generally This is a True Statement.  The Most Important Thing is to Drink the Wine at the Temperature That You Enjoy the Most.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do We Lose Our Sense of Smell as We Age?”
    • “The Number of Taste Buds and Nerve Ending Decrease as We Age and So Does Our Sense of Smell and Taste.  This Natural Phenomenon Increases In People Over the Age of 65.  In Some Studies It Has Been Shown That You Can Keep Your Taste and Smell  Lessen the Depletion of Them by Smelling A lot and Often to “Keep Them In Shape.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “If Someone Get Head Aches When They Drink Wine, Are They Allergic to Sulphur?”
    • “Wine Contains Hundreds of Natural Chemicals, All of Which Have the Potential to Effect People In Negative Ways. It’s More Correct to Say People Are Allergic to Wine For No One Really Know Which of These Chemicals is the Culprit.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Drinking Red Wine, Especially Full Bodied Reds From California is a Very Serious Wine Endeavor and One That Should Not Be Taken Lightly?”
    • “Drinking California Red Wine Has the Heightened Potential For Serious “Accute” Health Reactions.  Red Grapes, Mostly Thick Skinned Full Body Wines and the Warm Climate Leads to Developed Skin Maturity and Elevated Alcohol Levels.  Always Try to Limit Red Wine Consumption to 3 Glasses or Less and Hydrate Thoroughly or the Possibility of  Red Wine Hangover.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Who Should You Share Your Best/ Coveted/ Expensive/ Historical Bottle of Wine With?”
    • “While Wanting to Drink Your Best Wine With Your “Best” Friend or “Wife”, This Isn’t Alway the Best Thing. Great Wine Bottles Are Sometimes “Lost On” or They Lack Knowledge to Fully Appreciate What They Are Drinking.  So While You Want to Share Wine With Friends or Loved One and Help Them In Their Wine Journey Be Discriminative About Who You Share Your Best Bottles With and Think Twice When You Say “Just Pick Out Anything In the Cellar.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can You Persuade Your Palate to Evolve? Can You Resist Your Palates Evolution or Transformation?”
    • “Tasting by Tasting, Bottle by Bottle, Year After Year as Your Exposed to More Wine and Different Styles of Wine Your Palate Will Evolve.  A Young Person or Inexperienced Palate Will Except Sweetness and Reject Bitterness and High Acidity. Someone With an Advanced Palate Will Look Back at the Wine They Enjoyed When Younger and the Thought of What They Drank and Deemed Acceptable Will Make Them Cringe.  Can You Persuade Your Palate to Evolve? Yes, Over Time by Having an Adventurous Palate and Constantly Trying New Wine and Wine Styles Will Lead Your Palate Like and Appreciate New Wines.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “How Long Will Wine From a Bottle Last After Opening It?”
    • “Young, Full Body Wines Will Keep Integrity Longer Than Older, Thin Wines. Wine is “Almost” Perfect to Drink the Next Day, and Some Wine Lovers Find That Day Old Wine Has Opened and Developed Into Something More Complexed and Enjoyable the Day After.  There is the ”Law of Diminishing Returns”  With Wine, it Will Decrease In Quality From Day Two Onward and Be Relatively Fine For to Up to a Week. While Wine Will Lose Flavor and Taste It’s Can Be Consumed Harmlessly For Months.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does a Wine Spoil or Does it Just Go Bad?”
    • “When a Wine Goes Bad Organic Molecules Soften and Their Structure Starts to Subside, Go Flat or Lose Their Aromatics as Time Goes On Due to Oxidation. When Something Spoils it Involves Micros Developing In the Item, Making You Sick When You Drink it.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Our Palate’s Subconscious?”
    • “Does Our Wine Palate Change Subconsciously Through the Year From the Warm Summer Months to the Colder Winter Seasons Leaving Us Yearning to Drink Different Styles of Wine?  My Palate Longs For Bright/ Light Whites, Rose and Chilled Red Wines During the Summer.  After Fall Turns Into Winter I Want to Drink Heavier White Wines and Big Bold Reds and Even Fortified Wines Around the Holidays.  When the Weather Starts to Warms and Spring Turns to Summer the Pattern Starts Again and I Can’t Wait to Taste My First Rose of the New Season.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is it Better For Your Wine to Be Stored at 45° or 70°?”
    • “This is a Situation That a Lot of Wine People Are Confronted With. You Don’t Have a Wine Refrigerator  to Store Your Wine at a Perfect Temperature of 59°.  Instead You Have the Choice of Putting Your Wine In Your Kitchen Refrigerator at 45° or In Your Closet/ Pantry or Area of Your Home That is 70°.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Chardonnay Grown In Italy?”
    • “Should I Try/ Drink/ Care About Chardonnay Produced In  Italy.  I Have Tasted Tremendous Examples Grown In Barolo, Franciacorta and Friuli But I Don’t Care For Them.  I Think Its a Shame Producers Feel the Need to Produce and Promote French Varietals In Italy Instead of Growing Some of the 500 Different Indigenous Grapes Grown In Italy.  Some of These Are Not Being Championed By Anyone and Are On the Verge of Going Extinct.  I Don’t Want to Waste My Palate or Money On These Chardonnay, I Have the Entire “New World” of Wine For That.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Table Wine a Thing?”
    • “While It’s a Style of Wine That People Refer to, I Don’t Accept “Table Wine”.  I Thinks It’s a Lazy Concept and an Excuse For People to Sell Anonymous/ Low Quality Wine.  All Wine is From a Specific Varietal, Harvested From a Certain Location and Has a Back-Story to Determine Its Origen and General Quality. No Wine is Anonymous and No Wine is Table Wine.”

WINE EVALUATING

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Why Are Some Dry Wines Perceived as Sweet?”
    • “Even Dry Wine With Little or No Sugar Can Seem Sweet to Some Wine Drinkers.  This Impression of Sweetness Can Happen For a Variety of Reasons.”
      • High Alcohol Content
      • A Supper Fruity Wine
      • Insufficient Acidity Level
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is One Persons Perception of Fault is Another Persons Complexity?”
    • “Some Wine Drinker Have Been Drinking Wine From Wine Regions Where Brett is Present In the Wine In Small Amounts.  For This Regions and Consumers It’s Part of the Nuance of the Wine.  To Other Wine Drinkers Brett is a Fault and Even In the Smallest Amount It’s Considered Unacceptable.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does the Size of the Sips of Wine Effect the Taste and Flavor of Wine?”
    • “When Drinking for Pleasure Standard “Sips” Are Fine. When Drinking for Evaluation Take a Huge “Sip”, Enough to Fill Most of Your Mouth. Your Goal is to Work the Wine Around Your Entire Palate and Receive a Full/ Correct Impression.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can You Smell Sweetness In Wine?”
    • “You Can’t Spell Sweetness or Residual Sugar. You Can Smell Aspects of the Grape/ Wine That Can Lead You to What Could Be Sweetness In a Wine. Things Like Ripeness of Fruit of Viscosity.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can a Wine Be Too Clean, Lacking Character From Complexity of Minor Flaws?”
    • “Some Critic Complain or Point Out That Modern Wine Making Has Erased Flavor or Complexity Due to Faults.  Some Wine Lovers Prefer Wine That is Super Clean Free of Any Wine Fault or Flaws.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is the Ultimate Goal In the Wine World to Produce Wine That’s Free of Wine-Faults?”
    • “Generally Wine Quality is Defined by an Absence of Faults. Unless the Wine Maker is Trying to Make a Stylistic Statement.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Who Really Knows What a 65 Year Old Wine “Should” Taste Like?”
    • “No One Really Knows Has a 65 Year Old Wine Should Taste Like.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can an Educated Wine Professional/ Sommelier Pick Out Natural Wines In a Blind Tasting Among Conventional Wines?”
    • “This is Debatable, There are Things About Natural Wine That Might Stand Out When Blind Tasting: Natural Yeast, Enhance Texture, Tension In the Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is There a “Benchmark” Expression of a Certain Grape/ Wine That All Other Grape/ Wine Are Compared to? Does There Have to Be a Perfect 100 Score of That Grape/ Wine?”
    • “Just Like When Judging a Dog Show There is What is Thought to Be a Perfect Dog or That Breed or an Image of What That Particular Dog Should Look Like and What Qualities it Should Posses.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “If an Aroma is Smelled From a Glass Does It Need Time to Be Regenerated to Be Smelled Again In Full?”
    • “Wine Needs a Little Time to Generate and Release Its Aroma. This Can Be Accelerated by Swirling the Wine In the Glass and Helping It Give Up its Aroma Faster. Over an Extended Period of Time the Wine Will Release or Give Off Most/ All of Its Aroma and the Wine Will Not Contain Any Smells.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can You Pick Up On a Wine Aroma if You Aren’t Familiar With it or Have Never Smelled It?”
    • “If Everyone is Picking Up Rhubarb or Dill In a Wine But You Have Never Smelled or Aren’t Familiar With Rhubarb or Dill it Isn’t Likely You Will Find It In That Wine.  The Best Thing You as a Wine Assessor is Go Out and Find Yourself  the Scents You Are Missing.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can You Smell the Difference In Old World/ New World Wines?”
    • “There Are General Differences and Attributes Between Old World/ New World Wines That Can Be Smell by Educated Wine Evaluators.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “How is Wine Quality Assessed?”
    • “Generally Everything is On a Grander Scale. Quality Wines Show and Enhanced Spectrum of Flavors, and Increased Aromatic Levels. Quality Wine Show True Varietal Characteristics While Being More Complexed, Dense and Have Longer Finishes.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do You Ever Wonder if I Should Spit or Swallow?”
    • “Seasoned Drinkers, Wine Professionals and Sommeliers Wanting to Get the Most From Their Wine Tasting Experience Know It’s Imperative to “Spit” During a Portion of a Wine Tasting Event. Spitting Allows Tasters and Evaluators to Get a Full Impression of the Wine Without Getting Inebriated and Losing Their Palates Sharpness. After About a 10 Ounces of Wine the Tasting Receptor In Your Mount and  On Your Tongue Close Down Due to Alcohol Absorption and the Perception of Flavors Diminish. After a Wine Festival Where the Potential For Over 100 Wines Can to Be Tasted, Your Palate Will Quickly Becomes “Fatigued”.  Be Aware That Trace Amounts of Alcohol Gets Vaporized an Absorbed On Your Palate and After More Than 25 Tastings You’ll Possess and Slight Buzz.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “When Sipping and Spitting What Percentage of Alcohol In the Wine Does Your Palate Absorb?”
    • “I Feel Your Palate Absorbs 5%- 7% of the Alcohol In Wine While Sipping and Spitting.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What Percentage of a Wine Can You Appreciate While Sipping and Spitting?”
    • “I Feel Your Palate Can Appreciate 88%-90% of a Wine While Sipping and Spitting, There is About 10% of a Wine That Can’t Be Truly Appreciated or Assessed Completely Without Fully Swallowing the Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Drinking the Same Wine Out of Differently Shaped Glasses Effect the Taste, Perception or Enjoyment of that Wine?”
    • “I Believe Science Has Provided Evidence There’s a Quantifiable Effect When Drinking Wine From Different Shaped Wine Glasses. On the Nose the Subtleties Are Obvious, On the Palate It’s Less Obvious But Still Remarkable. The Most Tangible Reason is the Increased Surface Space, a Sort of Mini-Decanter. There’s Also an Increased Volume/ Ullage Inside Big Bulbed Glasses That Accumulates a Wines Aroma.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should You Rinse Your Wine Glass With Water Between Tastings?”
    • “Unless Your Going From Reds to Whites its Not Necessary. Water In Will Slightly Retard the Aroma and Flavors of a Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Just as There’s a General Consensus to What Makes a Good Song, Beautiful Girl, or Work of Art is There a Consensus to What Makes Up a Great Wine?”
    • “There’s a Consensus to What a Quality or Sound Wine is, the Other Attributes of What Makes A Great Wine Are Subjective and Up to the Taste and Preference of the Consumer.”

WINE STORAGE & AGING

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do Wines Stored In Rooms With Elevated Temperature Lead to Cooked Qualities In the Wine?”
    • “Extended Time In Higher Temperature For Years On End Will Have a Negative Effect On the Wine Resulting With Some Type of Flaw.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Even a Small Wine Bleed Through the Cork Lead to Negative Effects On the Wine?”
    • “Depending On the Size and the Duration of the Bleed, Any Extended Air Contact Will Lead to a Negative Effect On the Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Oak Barrel Neutrality?”
    • “How Many Years Does a Oak Barrel Have to Be Used For it to Be Considered “Neutral”?  Some Winemakers Consider a Wine Barrel Neutral After Only 2 Years.  I Believe Oak Barrels Generally Gives Off Half of Its Flavors/ Influence Each Year, Therefor a Oak Barrels Becomes Neutral After +4 Years, But Even Then I Feel There is Still a Little Oak to Leave Its Influence.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does Wine Age Better In Larges Formate Bottles Rather Than Standard Bottles?”
    • “As a Result to the Air the Wine Ratio In Larger Format Bottles Wine Generally Ages Slower That Standard Bottles.”

The GRAPE ITSELF

 

OTHERS

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Natural Wine More Alive Than Conventional Wine?”
    • “Natural Wine Looks Different/ More Alive Under a Microscope. It’s Microbally Super Healthy.   All Wines Are Alive at One Point, Natural Wine is Just More Alive Than Conventional Wine.  Natural Wine is More Alive With Remarkable Energy and Tension.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can Wine Be an Entire Discipline or Study Onto Itself, One That Entire Schools Revolve Around?”
    • “Since the 1800’s Wine Has Been Seen as Entire Disciple On to Itself. Universities Have Entire Departments Dedicated to the Study of “The Vine” and People Consumed With Collecting Its Information.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Wine Knowledge Quantification?”
    • “How Can We Quantify How Much Someone Knows About Wine?  Is Wine Knowledge Measured  by How Much Someone Can Memorize or Recite On a Test?  Could it Be the Wine Concepts They Have Grasped and Understand?  Could it Be the Amount of Wine or Bottles They Have Consumed Over the Decades?  How About the Number of Wine Regions They Have Traveled to?”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can the “The Vine”/ Wine World Be Demystified In a Complete Way/ In its Entirety?”
    • “The Entire Wine World With All Its Knowledge is Immense. Its History Dates Back 8 Millennia. Over the Past Millennia and Even More So the Past Few Centuries the Wine World Has Been Shrunk and Generally Figured Out and Documented. There Will Come a Time In the Future When We as an Industry Know Everything There is to Know.”

VINO TOURISM

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “If You Go to a Wine Region But Stay In the Main City (Portland) and Don’t Go to the Vineyards and Wineries (In Willamette Valley) Can You Still Claim You Have Been There? What About Going to a Tasting Room In Region or Driving Through Region?”
    • “If You Go to Portland, Oregon But Don’t Go Out to the Willamette Valley You Can’t Say That You Have Been to Oregon Wine Country.   The Act of Driving Through a Region Means You Have Been There, If You See the Vineyards and Take Notice of the Geography and Topography.  Visiting an Estate Winery and Talking Its Wine People Leads Itself to a Deeper Understanding of the Region and Its Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “While Doing Detailed Wine Research On Location In a Specific Region Should I Drink Wine Outside of the Region I’m Reaching?”
    • “While Doing Detailed Wine Research on Location You Should Take Every Opportunity to Drink and Assess the Wine That Are Being Produced In the Region.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should You Tell a Winery/ Wine Maker That Their Wine is Bad or Mediocre?”
    • “If  You Are Out Tasting and Come Across a Wine That is Just Horrible/ Bad Keep Your Opinion to Yourself.  Even if You Are Solicited by Them For You Advice or Thoughts On the Wine Be Nice and Just Lie a Little.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Should You Tell a Winery or Tasting Room That Their Wine is Faulty/ Not at the Correct Serving Temperature/ That Their Wine Flight Isn’t In the Correct Order or What the Grape Blend In the Wine is if the Tasting Room Associate Doesn’t Know?”
    • “Generally No, Think of Yourself as a Guest In Someones Home. Keep You Expertise and Suggestions to Yourself.”

HEALTH

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Resveratrol the Main Reason Behind the French Paradox?”
    • “There Are Many Factors Behind the Effects of the French Paradox.  Along With Resveratrol There Are Cultural/ Lifestyle/ Socioeconomic Reasons.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is the Ability to Smell Something You Can Learn to Be Good at?”
    • “Just Like Athletes Aquire the Ability to Excel at a Particular Sport or a Musician Spend Years Studying Music Theory and Practicing an Instrument Wine Professional or Wine People Who Desire to Have Aptitude at Blind Tasting Can Learn to Develop There Sense of Smell.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Wine Considered a Food?”
    • “Ever Since Wine Was Discovered it Has Been a Part of Meals But is it a Food. Wine Does Contain Calories, Small Amounts of Protein and Trace Amounts of Minerals.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “When is the Last Time a Women Can/ Should Drink Wine When Their Pregnant?”
    • “A Pregnant Women Should Stop Drinking Wine/ Alcohol On the Days They Find Out They’re Pregnant or if They are Over 8 Weeks Pregnant.”

CULTURE

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Wine and the Birth of Western Civilization”
    • “This Started In Ancient Egypt, Greece and Truly Formalized In Roman Times.  Drinking Wine Had a Profound Effect On the Evaluation of Man, His Thinking and Thus the Birth of Western Civilization.  Scholars and Philosophers of the Day Such as Homer, Plato and Aristotle, Followed by Historians, Poets, Artists and Architects, All Used Wine as the “Lubricate” to Influence or Were Influenced by Wine. The People of the Mediterranean Basin Began to Emerge From Barbarism When They Learned to Cultivate, Produce, Respect and Orderly Consume Wine.  Along the Way Wine Went From a Drink of Diet and Nutrition to the Conduit of Change In the Way Man Saw and Felt About the World.  This Sprang the Beginning of Western Philosophy and Civilization. Wine Was an Initial Umbrella That Lead Men and Women to Ask “Why”, Critically Think, Reflect, Plan, Organize, and Question In Turn This Ushered In the Age of Enlightenment.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is Participation In Wine Culture Such as Going to Wineries, Walking the Vineyards and Reading Up On Current Wine Magazine Have the Same Effect as a Baseball Fanatic Who Goes to the Stadiums to Watch Games and Reads Up on Sport Pages?”
    • “Drinking Wine is More Than Drunkenness, It’s the Intoxication of the Idea of the Experience of Drinking Wine. (A Definable Physiological Condition).  Even Void of Drinking the Wine There’s a Happy, Excited and Connection Feeling to a Bigger Thing/ Cult That Can Be Perceived as Intoxication.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can an Experience Make an Average Wine Good/ Better?”
    • “Drinking a Bottle of Rose In Bandol Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea Make the Wine Better Compared to Drinking the Same Bottle at Home. Some Other Examples are Drinking Box Wine On a Backpacking Trip, Drinking Wine with a Beautiful Women You’re In Love with, or Drinking With Jesus at the Last Supper.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is QPR. Quality/ Price Ratio Prevalent In Bordeaux?”
    • “The QPR. is Very Evident In the Bordeaux. Here the Consistency of the Topography and Soils In the Areas That Make Up Bordeaux Lend Itself to the Opportunity to Find Hidden Gems at Much Lower Prices.  Prices of Wine In Bordeaux Especially In The Medoc and St. Emilion Can Range From $15 to $1,000 and Often This Price Discrepancy is Based Off Branding or a Political Classification Put In Place 175 Years Ago.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “At What Age Should Be Teach Children to Respect Wine?”
    • “The Drinking Age In America is 21, Europeans Subject Their Kids With Watered Down Wine at a Young Age, Who is Right?”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is There Currently a Wine Renaissance Going On In America?”
    • “A Wine Rebirth is Happening In America. I Believe it Started Around 2012  and Will Continue For the Foreseeable Future.  Americans Have Aways Been About the Intoxicatingly and Social Lubricate Factors That Wine Brings. Nowadays People are Sincerely Into the Back-Story of Wine and an Interest In the History and Culture Behind Wine as Well as a Deepening Interest In How Grapes Are Grown and How Wine is Produced.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Did Wine and Beer Save All of Humanity?”
    • “In the Ancient World the Two Main Causes of Death Was Hunger and Dysentery. With the Threat of Deadly Water You Had to Drink or Beer or Die.  In Times of Plague and Disease Epidemics Wine Was the Solution. Wine Will Sterilize Water With Bacteria In it.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Can Wine Be an Entire Discipline or Study Onto Itself, One That Entire Schools Revolve Around?”
    • “Since the 1800’s Wine Has Been Seen as Entire Disciple On to Itself. Universities Have Entire Departments Dedicated to the Study of “The Vine” and People Consumed With Collecting Its Information.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “When You Are Making a Appointment to a Exclusive Winery Which Do Appointment Only Tastings and These Appointment Are Extremely Hard to Make You Are Not Only Making a Appointment to Taste Wine You Are Making a Appointment to Buy Wine and a Considerable Amount of Wine at That?”
    • “Most Exclusive High End Boutique Winery Don’t Care About or Want to See the General Public. There Brand is Already Solidified, There’s Not A lot of Wine Produced and Only Want to Sell Its Wine to Upscale Patrons.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Could the White Zinfandel Phenomenon of the 1980‘s have Led to Quality and Quantity of the “Old Vine” We Have In California Today?”
    • “When Sweet White Zinfandel Was “In Vogue” In the Late 70’s Producers Thought to Plant More Zinfandel Vines to Assure the Growing Consumption. When the Peoples Taste Changed In the Late 80’s They Where Left With Acres of Vines That Are Now Approach “Old Vine Statue”, and Producing Greats Wine.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “While Doing Detailed Wine Research On Location In a Specific Region Should I Drink Wine Outside of the Region I’m Reaching?”
    • “While Doing Detailed Wine Research on Location You Should Take Every Opportunity to Drink and Assess the Wine That Are Being Produced In the Region.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is the Goal of Getting Certified In the Wine Industry to Pass a Test or to Become a More Educated Professional/ Wine Educator?”
    • “If You Want to Take Your Minor Interest In Wine Further, Taste Wine, Read, and Take Some Wine Classes. If You Want to Take Your Major Interest In Wine Further, Taste All the Wine You Can, Read Everything You Can and Take Organized/ Certified Wine Classes.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do People Who Posses a Greater Knowledge and Background About “The Vine” Enjoy Wine More or Have a Enhanced Perceptual Experience With Wine?”
    • “Knowing the Back-Story Can Lead to a Greater Appreciating of  Wine.  Knowing the Winemaker, Winery, History, Culture or Having Been to the Growing Area Adds to the Drinking Experience and Can Guide or Help Us With Better Buying Decisions?”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What’s Somm. Culture?”
    • “Somm. Culture is Yet to Be Fully Defined. While I Feel It Centers Around Hospitality and Knowledge it Also Encompasses Blind Tasting, Being a Wine Influencer, Wine Nerdiness, Wine Obscurity and Passion.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “What Makes a 100 Point Wine?”
    • “This All Depends On the Evaluators Palate.  A Wines Quality is Objective and Easy to Score.  Most Everything Else is Subjective and Difficult to Quantify.  A Super High Acid Riesling to Some Might Be the Most Appealing Characteristic Ever, But to Someone Who Does Not Like Elevated Acidy Wouldn’t Score That Wine With a 100 Point.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is is Better to Buy Wine From a Private Customer or to Buy Wine From a “Big Room/ Auction House”?”
    • “This Can Be Tricky, When You Buy From a Private Customer You Can Go to Their Cellar, See and Feel the Conditions That the Bottles Are Kept and Get a Great Idea of How the Wine Are Cared For.  With a Auction House All of That Insight is Gone and You Are Left With the Seller Word and the Buyer Intuition.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does a Wine Need to Be Put ‘In Context’ In Order to Be Fully Understood and Enjoyed?”
    • “How a Wine Was Made(Topographic Sight, Style, Viticultural Challenges, Minimal Intervention), What it Pairs With, the Price, Its Reputation of the Producer, the Place. All Things Pertaining to Wine Are Relevant to the Wine Itself.  To What Degree Wine Needs to Be Put In Context is Debatable. Unless You Are Assessing a Wine Blind or Drinking Just For the Buzz or the Enjoyment of the Wine Itself, Wine Needs to Be Put In Context to Be Fully Understood.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “As a Sea Fairing Country the Greek Get Credit For Spreading Wine and Wine Culture Around the Mediterranean Sea/ Basin?”
    • “Greece Had the Want and the Means to Push the Wine Market From Their Shores to the Shore of Other Countries.”

WINE ECONOMICS

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Does a Wine Region Need Its Own “Wine Identity”/ “Flag-Ship” Grape/ Varietal Flag or a Specific Wine That Stands Out On the World Market For a Region to be Successful?”
    • “While It’s Not Completely Necessary For a Wine Region to Have a Certain Grape That Stands Out is Helpful to the Region For Marketing and Identity In an Overly Saturated Wine World.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Are Different Bottle Shapes and Sizes Being Branded to Represent Different Regions and Wine Styles?”
    • “Bottle Shapes and Colors Are Starting to Become Hallmarks of Wine Regions and Are Starting to Be Used In Branding Purposes.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Is a Wine Better When It’s More Expensive?”
    • “There Are Many Factors and Tangents That Go Into the Price of a Bottle of Wine. The Limited Amount/ Supply of the Wine, the Difficulty of Harvesting(Mountain Vineyards Compared to Machine Harvested Flat Vineyards), Price of Real Estate  the Branding Costs and Elevage Time All Can Lead to Elevated Prices.”

3) CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUES

“The Purpose of These Contentious Issue Questions Are to Discuss Wine Topics in a Complex Way and to Challenge the Way We Look and See Things.  The Answers to These Contentious Issue Question Can Be Found In the Corresponding Section That the Questions Were Asked.”

CONTENTIOUS– Causing or Liking to Cause a Argument or Controversy to Prove Their Knowledge or Your Lacking of Knowledge.
PHILOSOPHY– Is There a Connection Between Philosophy and Contentious Issues? Is All Philosophy Contentious to Begin With?

VITICULTURE

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “10,000 Grape Varieties?”
    • NO…“The Wine World Generally Accepts That There’s Over 10,000 Grape Varieties But Are There Really?  As of 2023 I Can Only Find, and Classify 2,275   Different Grapevines Grown Around the World.  If Some Organization Can’t Come Up With an Official List or Un-Official List of All the Different Grapes Varieties We Should Continue to Remain Skeptical.   In the Meanwhile My “Grapes of the World” Catalog On DtheV.com Should Continue to Be Seen the “Benchmark” and I Will Use My Estimation of 3,500.”
    • YES…“Google States Without Evidence That There Are Over 10,000 Grape Varieties and Someone Would Be a Fool to Try to Find and Catalog Them All.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “If a Certain 42 Grapes Where Experimentally Crossed at Geisenheim Grape Institute In Germany In 1879 and In the Past Over 100 Years Only One Has Been Reproduced Should the Other 41 Grapes Be Considered a Type of Grape?”
    • YES…“If a Grape Was Crossed Once It Can Be Crossed Again.”
    • NO…“If a Grape Crossed and Not Good or Interesting Enough For Mass Production and Hasn’t Been Produced In Over 100 Years It Isn’t a Grape or at Least a Grape We Should Count On the Official Number of Different Grape Varietals of the World.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “You Can Produce Better Wine Organically!”
    • NO…“You Can Grow Better Grapes Organically But Nobody Can Produce a Better Wine Organically. Organic Wine Produces Who Don’t Add Sulfites to Their Freshly Harvest Grapes, Must or Prior to Bottling Are Always at Risk for Wine to Be Compromised.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “You Can Produce Better Wine Conventionally!”
    • YES/ NO…“Better Wine is Based of Organics, Taste, or Price, It’s an Individuals Call.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “It’s Alright For Wine Producers to Be Reluctant to Discuss Exactly What They Did or Used On the Wine Even Though is Was Completely Legal!”
    • YES…“Legally There is Nothing That States Producers Have to State What Procedures They Used In Wine Making.”
    • NO…“With an Eye On Transparence I Think It’s a Good Idea For the Wine Producer to State What They Did or Didn’t Do When Making the Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “It’s Wrong For Wine Makers to Not Disclose the Addition of Sugar, Acids, or Tannins to Their Wines In an Effort to Make Average Wine Better!”
    • YES…“It Done Care What the Wine Maker Does to Their Wine But I Want to Know What It is That They Add or Take Out So I Can Make My Own Decision On if I Want to Consume it or Not.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “A Variety of Issues Lead the Phylloxera Out-Break of the 1980’s In California!”
    • YES…“Irrigation Which Was Introduced In the 1970’s Didn’t Challenge the Roots to Go Deep In Search of Water Which Was Readily Available at the Surface. This Coupled With the Massed Produced AXR-1 Rootstock Which Was Promoted by UC. Davis as Phylloxera Resistant Was Not.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “There’s No Formal Definition For Natural Wine!”
    • “While There’s No “Formal” Definition, There is the Criteria Above “Conditions Necessary to Be Considered Nature Wine” That I Widely Excepting Throughout the Natural Wine Community.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “If a Grape Grower is Truly Into Bio-Dynamics They Are Religiously Invested In the Concept and Process. If Your Arn’t Religious Then You Aren’t Truly Growing Bio-Dynamically!”
    • “This Aspect of Bio-Dynamics has Been Debated for a Century. Does the Religious Belief of a Bio-Dynamic Grape Grower Take President Over the Greater Good of the Areas Viticulture Community?”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Organic Wine is Better Than Conventional Wine!”
    • “You Can Grow Better Grapes Organically But Nobody Can Produce a Better Wine Organically. Organic Wine Producers Who Don’t Add Sulfur to Their Freshly Harvest Grapes, Must, Prior to Bottling Are Always at Risk For Wine to Be Compromised.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Sulfur!”
    • “This One Word is Misused and Talking About it Can Lead to People Getting a Headache.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Vitis International Variety Catalogue VIVC. Which is the Foremost Authority On the Grapes of the World States That There Are Over 10,000 Grape Varieties. So It’s Stated and Definitive!”
    • YES…“If the Lead Authority Says This So It Has to Be True.”
    • NO…“I Have Been Through This Catalogue and the Majority of the Grapes Have Zero Information..”Zero” Besides a Name Nothing Else is Stated. No Grape Color, No Pedigree, No Places Where it is Grown, No Flavor and Aromas…”Nothing”.  This Void In Grape Information is Misleading and Sorry.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Climate Change!”
    • YES…“Climate Change is Here, and It’s a Horrible Thing For Viticulture and the World.  It Effects Everyone and Everything Including Grape Growing Directly or Indirectly by Rising Temperatures, Extreme Weather Events, Increased CO2 Emissions and Changing Climate Patterns.  If This Continues Wine as We Know it Will Be Ruined Within a Decade.”
    • NO…“Whether It’s Man-Made or a Repeating Cycle of the Earth Its Not That Bad. (This Cycle Has Been Repeating Itself For Millions of Years.) Slightly Warmer Temperatures Caused by Climate Change Are Helping Wine Growing Countries Such as Burgundy, England, Germany, Oregon and Canada Produce Their Best and More Consistent Wines Nearly Every Year.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Using Organic Products Isn’t Always the Best Thing Overall For the Environment!”
    • YES…“Sometimes What’s Organic and What Makes the Most Sense Lead to Different Outcome.”
    • NO…“Using Organic Products On Your Vineyard is the Only and Best Way to Deal With Viticultural Challenges.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Is Drinking Wine Without Added Sulfites More Prone to Lead to Undesirable Wine Issues Such as Head Aches, Breathing Difficulties, Allergic Reactions and Hangover.?”
    • “Multiple Conclusive Studies Have Shown That Wine Produced Without Added Sulfites Breakdown and Spoil Quicker Than The No Added Sulfite Counterparts Leading to an Increased In Biogenic Amines Which Lead to an Increase In Undesirable Wine Issues Including Head Aches, Breathing Difficulties, Allergic Reactions and Hangovers.  This Has Lead Researchers to Believe That if You Suffer From These Ailment You Might Want to Search Out Wines That Are Sound, Use Minimal Sulphur at Bottling and Will Reframe From Breaking Down.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Calling Your Vineyard “Dry Farmed” In a Climate Where There is an Abundance of Rain!”
    • NO…“In Regions Such as Oregon or Burgundy Where There’s an Over Abundance of Rain Some Grape Grower Shouldn’t Refer to There Farming Practice as “Dry Farmed”. This Term Should Be Reserved For Regions Where Rain is a Challenge to Receive.”
    • YES…“If the Vineyard is Dry-Farmed and No Irrigation is Added Then It’s Considered a “Dry-Farmed Vineyard Regardless of How Much Rainfall the Region Gets Annually.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Replant Santorini!”
    • YES…“The Greek Island of Santorini Should Replant Their Vineyards.  The Island Didn’t Take Enough Planning When Planting 500 of Years Ago. There is No Vine Row Direction, Coherent Vine Spacing or Sun Exposure Strategy to Minimize Climate Change. It’s Seems That the Entire Island is Planted Randomly.”
    • NO…“The Vineyards of Santorini Have a History of Roots That Go Back 500 Years(New Vines Are Grafted On the Old Vines Every 80 Years).  Replanting the Island Will Lose This Old Root Heritage.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Getting Certified Organically is Like Paying Someone A lot of Money Annually to Come Audit Yourself!”
    • “If Your Market Cares About the “Organic” Sign On the Label Its Worth it. If Your Using 100% Organic Viticulture and You Don’t Care the the Bureaucracy Then Its Not worst it.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Idea of Even Thinking There Could Be a Single Best Terroir In the World is a Contentious Issue!”
    • YES/ NO… “I Don’t Know if You Can Quantify This But if There is I’m Going There.”

VINICULTURE

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “A Wine Can’t Be Considered a “Super Tuscan” if the Wine Isn’t Produced From Bordeaux Varietal Grown On the Tuscan Coast and Blended With Sangiovese, and Differently Not if the Grape Arn’t Even Grown In Italy at All?”
    • YES…“Some Producers Are Labeling Their Wines “Super Tuscans” Without Sangiovese Grapes and Some Producers of the World Are Even Calling Their Wines “Super Tuscan” When Grapes and Wines Are Not Even Grown In Italy…and They Should Stop.”
    • NO…“It Doesn’t Matter Where the Grapes Are Grown or What is In the Blend, “Super Tuscans” Has Became a Marketing Ploy and All of This Doesn’t Really Matter.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Aromatizing Wine or Steeping Wine With Natural Ingredients is OK but the Addition of Artificially Flavors Isn’t!”
    • YES…“Producing Aromatized Wine or Adding Botanics to Wine is a Great Practice That Has Been Going On For Thousands of Years.”
    • NO…“Unless the Producer is Stating On the Label That There is Something Added to the Wine, Adding Things to Wine For Complexity Without Stating That You Are Is Frowned Upon.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Vermouth Should Have to be Infused With Wormwood to Be Considered a True Vermouth!”
    • YES…“Historically, and Very Soul of Vermouth Contains Wormwood and to Truly Be Considered Vermouth Wormwood is a Must.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Tartrate Crystals and Cloudiness In Wine is Seen as a Fault!”
    • “Tartrate Crystals and Cloudiness In Wine is a Sign of Quality and I View the Wine as One That Hasn’t Been Overly Processed, and Having Aspect of a Natural Wine. If Someone is Freaking Out About Tartrate Crystals, Decant the Wine or Filter it Through Cheese Clothes.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Natural Wine Doesn’t Age Well!”
    • NO…“Natural Wine Can Age Just as Well as Conventional Wine if the  Grapes Used Are Suitable For Aging, (Possessing Higher Tannins/ Higher Acidity/ Sugars.) Produced With No Faults or Flaws, and the Wine Was Stored In the Proper Conditions.”
    • YES…“Natural Wines Arn’t the Best to Age Due to Their Minimal Intervention Techniques Such as No Sulphur Addition, (to Control Bacteria and Spoilage) No Fining and No Filtering.  Sure These Natural Wines Are Fine For a Couple Years But We All Cringe When We See a 10 Year Old Natural Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Natural Wine Movement is Lessening the Value or Importance of the Wine Maker!”
    • YES…“By Not Having to Worry About Yeast, Fining and Filtering Wine, Knowledge of Oak Barrels, etc. the Natural Winemaker Doesn’t Have to Be as Well Rounded as He Once Was.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Is Oaked Wine Better!”
    • NO…“Don’t Get Crossed by Price and Aging Requirement, Your Palate May Prefers the Fruity Freshness of a Young Joven or Crianza Over to a “Highly Oaked and Aged Gran Reserva.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “I Don’t Care About the Wine Maker!”
    • “Generally I Don’t Care About the Winemaker.  I Care About and Want to Know Where the Winery is Located and if They Are Growing Their Own Grapes.  I’m Interested Where the Grapes Are Grown So I Can Personally Assess the Regions Geography, Topography, Climate and  Terroir That Influenced the Vineyard and the Quality of the Vintage.  Now With the Prominence of the “Natural Wine Movement” Where Winemakers Are Doing Close to Nothing to the Wine They Have Even a Lessor Influence On the Finished Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Property Aged Wine is Better In Every Way Than a Young Wine. Is Aged Wine Better Or Does It Become a Different Style of Wine!”
    • “Aged Wine is Not Necessary Better as Some People Will Lead You To Believe. Aged Wine Takes On a New Life of it Own, and Become Aged and a Different Style of Wine. New Tertiary Characteristics Come Forward, the Aroma, Flavors and Structure of an Aged Wine Are Something to be Appreciated and Aren’t to Every Ones Palate. Before Blindly Starting a Cellaring Program For a Wine the Bottles Owner Must Realize if  That Style of Aged Wine is Right For Their Palate and Do You Like It.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Oak Barrels Neutrality!”
    • “How Many Years Does a Wine Barrel Need to Be Used Before It’s Considered Neutral?  Many Prominent Winemakers Which I Respect Say After 2-3 Years Oak Barrels Stop Imparting Flavors and Influencing the Wines Taste.  From My Experience I Consider an Oak Barrel Neutral After 5 Years But Even Then I Feel There’s Still a Little Oak to Leave its Influence.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “It’s Wrong to Refer to the Process as Malolactic Fermentation!”
    • YES…“It’s Not a “Fermentation”, But a “Conversion” of Malic Acid to Lactic Acid.  People Call the Process a “Fermentation” Because of the Similar Bubbling Effect That Takes Place But the Proper Term Should Be Malolactic Conversion.”
    • NO…“The Entire Wine World Refers to the Process as Malolactic Fermentation So Just Let it Be.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Wine Makers Are Reluctant to Discuss Exactly What They Did or Used On the Wine Even Though is Was Completely Legal!”
    • “Some Procedures the Wine Makers Put the Wine Through or Do to the Wine Are Perfectly Legal, But Are Shady and if it Was On the Label it Would Not Look Good For the Producer and Consumers Would Shy Away From the Purchase.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Grapes Like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon Should Always Be Produced In the Same Classic Style, While Some Other Grapes Can Be Produced In Varying Styles!”
    • YES…“I Don’t Want to Drink a Full-Body Tannic Pinot Noir, Nor Do I Want to Drink a Light, Structure Lacking Cabernet Sauvignon.”
    • NO…“Wine Makers Can and Should Be Able to Produce Any Wine That They Wish and Consumers Should Be Able to Drink Them.”

DRINKING

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Wine Taste Different/ Better In Various Moon Phases: Full Moon/ No Moon. There’s Such a Thing as Drinking “Bio-Dynamically”!”
    • NO…“There’s No Way That the Bio-Dynamic Calendar and Pick Out Days a Wine Should Be Consumed and Days Not to Drink a Wine. 29 Days a Month the Wine is Fine But When Moon is In a Fire Sign, That One Day Only the Wine is Bad and Shouldn’t Be Consumed But All Other Days the Wine is Fine.”
    • YES…“The Power of the Moon is Immense, and it Possesses the Ability to Change a Wines Structure and Flavors Only For One Day.  If You Can’t See That You Are Not a Believer.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Natural Wine Need to Be Drunk In Context!”
    • NO...“A Good Wine is a Good Wine Regardless if the Wine Was Produced Naturally or Not.”
    • YES…“Often a Wine Which In a Blind Tasting Wouldn’t Show Well or Stand Out For Quality or Typicity is Much More Appreciated or Understood When Put Under the Context of Being a “Natural Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Wine Gets Too Much Credit For its Being Able to Age!”
    • YES…“Even Properly Cellared Wine Dating Back Into Last Century Is At Risk of Being Compromise Due to Aging.”
    • NO…“Wine With Inherent Qualities For Aging That is Properly Stored Will Age For Decades and Get Better and Better With the Passing of Time.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Property Aged Wine is Better In Every Way Than a Young Wine. Is Aged Wine Better Or Does It Become a Different Style of Wine!”
    • “Aged Wine is Not Necessary Better as Some People Will Lead You To Believe. Aged Wine Takes On a New Life of it Own, and Become Aged and a Different Style of Wine. New Tertiary Characteristics Come Forward, the Aroma, Flavors and Structure of an Aged Wine Are Something to be Appreciated and Aren’t to Every Ones Palate. Before Blindly Starting a Cellaring Program For a Wine the Bottles Owner Must Realize if  That Style of Aged Wine is Right For Their Palate and Do You Like It.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Who’s to Say What Aromas and Flavors a Grape Typically Should Have!”
    • “Typicity Isn’t Subjective. Wines and Grapes Have Standards That Nature Has Evolved or Mutated to Over Time. Typicity and Varietal Character is How the Grape or Wine Matches Up With Those Standards and Are Interwoven In Wine Culture. There are Reasons Why Grapes Have Mutated Into What They Are Today. Sometimes These Grapes Have to Be Put In Proper Context but Beginning or Average Wine Drinkers Shouldn’t Be Assessing Typicity For Lack of Experience or Calibration Skills. When it Comes to Judging or Scoring a Wine Typicity is Very Important and Should Be Observed.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Wine Priced Under $5 a Bottle is Completely Unhealthy!”
    • YES…“Wine Produced Under $5 a Bottle is Extremely Processed and Unhealthy.  The Additives Used: Coloring, Excessive Sulfites Ect. Make That $3.99 Bottle Horrible Health-Wise.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “I’m Amazed How Forgiving Fans of Natural Wines Are When It Comes to Quality and Typicity!”
    • “Its Seems That Sometimes a Wine Which Would Ordinarily Be Called Out For Being Flawed or Faulty is Given a Past or Just Credited to as Being a Natural Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “It’s Alright to Serve a Noticeable Oxidized Wine Just Because It’s Produced by a Legendary “Natural” Wine Producer and Aged For 12 Years In an Amphora!”
    • YES…“Oxidized Wine is a Style of Wine That’s Not Appreciated by All Wine Consumers But Should Be Available For People to Consume if They Choose.”
    • NO…“In No Situation Should You Sell a Drastically Flawed Wine Even if the Wine Was Produced In Friuli, Italy and Made by a Legendary Natural Wine Pioneer Using Amphora.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Idea of Terroir a Real, Tangible Thing or is it a Made Up Concept That Only Certain People Believe In!”
    • YES…“Terroir is Real and Can Be Proven and Tasted Through Wine Year After Year In Wine Regions and Vineyards Around the World.”
    • NO…“Terroir is Made Up and a Figment of Wine Drinker Imagination, It Can’t Be Proven or Quantified.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “You Can’t Smell or Taste Minerality In a Wine!”
    • YES…“A Wine Soaks Up the Minerals and Passes it On to the Wine. The Vines Roots Are Into the Soil and Absorbing Minerals Over the Entire Growing Cycle. Just as We Can Perceive Minerals In Mineral Water Can the Same Be True For Wine.”
    • NO…“Grapes Don’t Take In the Minerals For the Soils and You Can’t Detect it In the Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “I Don’t Want to Tasting or Drink Grapes Indigenous to the Country to Which They Are From No Matter How Good the Wine is!”
    • NO…“When I’m In Italy or Drinking Italian Wine I Only Want to Drink Grapes Indigenous to Italy. I’m Not Interested In Italian Producers Who Grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Syrah. I Can Get These Varietals In Any New World Country.”
    • YES…“I Think That It’s Great That Countries Like Italy Have Branched Out to New Varieties That Are Not Native to Them.  The Whole Super Tuscan Movement Has Shown That Producers or Regions Such as Bolgheri On the Tuscan Coast Have Fully Flipped There Grape Mix and Pedigree to New Grapes and Wine..”

CULTURE

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Someone Who Passes the “Court of Master Sommeliers” Exam is Considered a Sommelier Even Though They Don’t Work at a Restaurant or Wine Industry!”
    • YES…“Recently There Has Been Great Interest In Wine and as a Result People Are Getting Educated by the Court of Master Sommeliers. These People Who Obtain Their Sommelier Certification Are “Somms” Even if  They’re Not Working In a Restaurants, or Have No Intention of Working as a Wine Professional at All.”
    • NO…“Unless You Are Working On a Restaurant Floor, Pairing Food With Marked-Up Wine You Are Not a Sommelier.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Wines of Barolo and Barbaresco That Have Historically Been Produced Lacked Quality and the Lives That the Grape Grower and Wine Producers Lived Were Not Glamorous or Held In High Regard!”
    • YES…“Until the 1950’s & 60’s the Lifestyles of the People and the Wine Produced In Piemonte, Italy Were Far From Great, the Quality and the Viticulture and Viniculture Skills Were Highly Lacking.  Being In the Wine Industry Was Considered a Peasant Job That Was Highly Frowned Upon by the General Society.”
    • NO…“The Wines of Barolo and Barbaresco Have For Hundreds of Years Been of the Highest Quality and the Pinnacle of Italian Wine Making.  You Are a Wine Idiot For Even Entertaining This Idea.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Wine-Bottle Mark-Ups In Restaurants!”
    • YES… “The Mark-Up On Wine In Restaurants (Up to 500%) is Ridiculous.  It’s a Major Detractor For Some Wine Lovers to Go Out to Restaurants and Enjoy Pairing Wine With Food.  When You Are Spending $130+, Plus Tip & Tax On an Average Bottle of Wine That Sells For $25 at Their Local Wine Shop It’s a Difficult Proposition to Accept For the Wine Consumer.”
    • NO…“Restaurant With Wine Programs Use These Egregious Wine Mark-Ups to Make the Entire Operation Happen.  From Hosts In Front Greeting You and Seeing You to Your Tables, Food Preps, Cooks, Dishwashers, Glass Polishers and Sommeliers Helping the Guest With Their Wine Decisions and Pouring the Wine.  The Nicer the Place You Want to Drink Your Wine In the More Expensive the Rent is.  The List of Expenses That Need to Go Right Behind the Scenes So You Can Sit In Peace and Smell and Taste Your Wine is Endless.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “A Wine Costing $50 and a Wine Costing $150 Made From the Same Grapes From the Same Vineyard or Growing Area Should Not Have Such a Dramatic Price Range!”
    • YES …“Grapes Grown and Produces Using the Same Grapes, Methods and Means of Production Should Cost the Same.”
      NO…“However or How Much the Winery or Wine Producers Want to Charge Its Customers is Up to Them. If the Winery Brands and Market a Wine as a Higher Quality and Value and Chargers 3 Types as Much For the Same Wine is Up to Them and if the Stupid or Less Informed Customer Falls For the Marketing It’s On Them.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “When is a Sommelier a Sommelier!”
    • “The Sommelier Who Works the Floor of a Restaurant and Isn’t a Certified Sommelier.   This Compared to the Advanced Sommelier Who is a Sommelier by Certification But Has Never Set Foot On a Restaurant Floor In His Life.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “The Church/ Monks and Monasteries Used Wine as “Lubricate” to Push Their Religious Agenda!”
    • YES…“Though Out History the Church Would Pass Out Wine During Their Masses to Slightly Inebriate the Following In an Effort to Get Them to Join Their Cult.”
    • NO…“That is Just Ridiculous, the Church Would Never Use a Drug Like Wine to Get People Into Their Religious Cult.”

OTHER

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “The Wine World Accepts That There’s +5,000 Varietals But as of 2019 I Can Only Find, Demystify and Classify 1,776 There Isn’t 5,000-10,000!”
    • NO…“If Myself or Some Organization Can’t Come Up With a Definitive List of All the Worlds Grape I Will Use My Estimation of 2,200.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Demystifying “The Vine” is One of the Best Resource and Research Web-Sites For Wine In the World!”
    • YES…“It’s 2020 and the Entire Wine World is Not Fully Organized.  There Are Many Web-Sites That Make it Easy to Find Information About Wine and DtheV.com is One of Them.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “There is No Formal Definition of What a Sommelier is!”
    • NO…“In Order to Become a Sommelier the Court of Master Sommeliers Makes Somm’s Memorize the World of Wine With All Its Definition and Wine Nuances But the Court Will Not Come Up With a True Formal Definition.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Some Wine Makers Are Reluctant to Have “Label Transparency” or Discuss the Production of Thier Conventional Wine by Stating In Writing On Their Wine Labels Exactly What They Did or What Treatments They Used On the Wine Even Though it May Be Completely Legal!”
    • YES…“Wine-Makers Should Be Completely Open and Use “Label Transparency” by Stating What Wine Additions and Procedures They Did During the Production of the Wine.  Let the Wine Consumer Decide How “Processed” the Wine is and if They Want to Drink it or Not.”
    • NO…““Label Transparency” Isn’t Required By Law So Wine Producers Shouldn’t Have to State Anything On the Wine Label That They Did While Producing the Wine.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “The Best Wine Country!”
    • “This List is Based On the Criteria of the Countries: Wine History, Wine Culture, Wine Quality, Terroir, Wine Tourism, Magnitude, Diversity In Wine, My Personal Preference.”
      • France
      • Italy
      • California
      • Spain
      • Australia
      • Germany
      • Chile

CONTENTOUS WINE DISPUTES

  • CONTENTIOUS WINE DISPUTES!  “Who Gets Credit For Originally Producing Pisco?”
    • “Pero and Chile Have Had a Long Dispute to Who Originally Started Producing Pisco First.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE DISPUTES!  “Who Gets Credit For Originally Producing Tokaj?”
    • “Slovakia and Hungary Have Been Disputing the Origins of Tokaj For Hundreds of Years. In 2004 the Dispute Was Settled and Now Both Countries Can Refer to the Name Tokaj On Their Bottles.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE DISPUTES!  “The Wine World Calling Their Sparkling Wine Champagne?”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE! “Can Someone Smell or Taste Minerality In a Wine!”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Wine Scores Can Be a Point of Contention, They Often Tell You What to Think if You Can’t Come Up With an Opinion Yourself!”

THIS SECTION Is A WORK IN PROGRESS

  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Can A Bad Vintage In a Region For One Grape But Beneficial For Another Variety Going In the Same Region?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Why Does the Wine Effect Me Differently In Europe Than It Does In California?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Can You Learn by Osmosis When Hanging Out With People Drinking Wine Over Time?”
    • “Week by Week, Month After Month, Year After Year Drinking Wine  In Themed Tasting and Being Around Other Who Are Discussing Wine Topics and Extruding Their Wine Passion Will Eventually Rub Off On You and You Will Become More of a Educated Wine Drinker.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Why Would A Consumer Buy a 94 Point Wine For $80 When They Can Buy a 94 Point Wine For $22?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “When Talking About a Wine Such as Chardonnay In a Judgmental Way Should You State Your Preferences and Quantify the Style the Winemaker Produced?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY? “Do Scents of White Flowers Smell of White Wine and Do Scents of Dark Flower Smell of Red Wine?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Why Does One Man or Critics Palate Decide the Winners and the Losers In the Wine World?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “This Sauvignon Blanc is Terrible, Oh It’s a Gruner Veltling, It’s Great?”
    • “The.”
  • WINE & PHILOSOPHY?  “Is it Wrong if Someone Thinks the “Classic” Example of Pinot Noir is From Russian River or the “Classic” Example of Riesling is the Expressions Grown In theFinger Lakes?”
    • “The.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “The Winery Should Produce Wines From the Region Its In!”
    • YES...“When I Go to Visit and Do Research I Want to Producer to Have Some Estate Wines From Thier Region and Hopefully From Grapes That Are On the Property of the Winery.”
    • NO…“”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Should Wineries Produce Wine With Grapes Sourced Outside Their AVA., DOC., AOC.?”
    • “The.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “Napa Cabernet Sauvignon is One of the Most Respected and Sought After Wines In the World!”
    • YES…“”
    • NO…“Outside of California and China, No-one Hold Napa Cabs. In High Regard and it Certainly Doesn’t Belong When Mentioning the Greater Wines of the World.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “People Are Full of Shit When They Taste 100 Year Old Wine!”
    • YES…“”
    • NO…“”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “You Should Tell the Somm. or Beverage Manager When Your Wine is Corked, Oxidized, or Faulty!”
    • YES…“”
    • NO…“”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “It’s Hard to Judge the Quality of the Cabernet Sauvignon Grown In the Medoc/ Bordeaux Because It’s Always Blended With Other Grapes”
    • “The.”
  • CONTENTIOUS WINE ISSUE!  “The Vitis International Grape Catalog is Wrong to Log Information On Grapes They Have Zero Information On!”
    • YES…“The Majority 10,000+ of 13,000 Grapes In Their Data Base Are Completely Empty, Except For a Name.”
    • NO…“The Vitis International Catalog is the Biggest Most Respected Data Base, and They Can Represent the Number of Grapes Thier Way.”

**Refer to “BIBLIOGRAPHY/ Sources” For Details On Scholarly Works Referenced.