Friends of mine have asked if I am tired of perpetual Malbec drinking. After four years of going full speed into this pursuit, the answer still remains "no". There's still so much out there to explore in this one corner of space that I feel as if I'm still just getting started. And I love it. It's true there's only a finite amount of vineyards, processes, and creators out there with this specialization, but within that constraint is so much more than I realize. It's a constant and daily fascination for me. Is it getting more and more expensive by the day? Absolutely. 99% of the reviews on this site are purchased. The samples we've reviewed products upon are usually enjoyed in tasting rooms or at social gatherings.
The problem with a site like this is the limits of language and descriptors. We tend to find ourselves rehashing and exhausting the vernacular which paints an accurate portrait of the things we are sampling. It's not exactly litigation on language and our sensory processing abilities, but it does threaten to creep into a site like this and make it monotonous and predictable, threatening to instill boredom amongst the regular readership.
So how do we remedy this? We are not exactly sure yet. We've had discussions galore about this on the Slack chat, and no real solution presents itself other than completely scrapping our template for a second time and devising a third way to present things. 18 months in, we are pretty pleased with how the site looks, feels, and performs. It's an ongoing discussion, and one we delight in. We are still not interested in community building, or really going for reach on social platforms. It's just too much work for something which is supposed to be enjoyable. But reconsidering the language of wine reviews is a subject that we continue to dig deeper into, beyond just sampling and evaluating Malbecs.
For the first time ever, we are also open to other reviewers who'd like to join our anonymous tribe. Email us at the address on the contact page.