It is personally interesting to discover something about yourself when it comes to wine. I’ve learned that I can switch between tasting wines and drinking wines. Kathy and I visit over a hundred wineries and taste over a thousand wines a year. At wineries and tasting events, I use a mode of discovery. I describe the wine and hold back with a critique. There are numerous writers that award medals and points. We believe in empowering consumers to decide for themselves what they like and dislike.

When I find myself at a restaurant or social gathering I’d rather drink wine than taste it. My mode shifts from one of discovery to one of critique and preference. The closer a wine comes to the profile of what I like the better.

Last evening Kathy and I attended the February gathering of HoCoBlogs.com at the Rams Head Tavern in Historic Savage Mill. A group of bloggers and blog readers attended the social gathering. The Rams Head Tavern is unique as it takes up four floors in its building at Savage Mill. The tavern gave the blogger gathering its own room that helped make the party more intimate.

I decided to drink two of the house reds (Woodbridge) a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot.  Both wines were thin with single layers of fruit on the aroma and taste and no tannins on the finish. They were not close to the profile of wines I like to drink. I like my reds to have multple layers of taste with several aromas. I like bold tannins on the finish with a fruity aftertaste that lasts for at least thirty seconds. I prefer not to have any heat on the finish. This is what I like to drink. It is important to point out that the wines I drank at the Rams Head Tavern were not bad wines. They just didn’t fit the profile of wines that I currently enjoy. I used the word “currently” since this profile for reds has evolved during the last couple of years and will continue to evolve in the future.  So what wines fit my profile? There are many including those I bottled last year and hopefully the barrel of Cab we have at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia. I enjoy drinking Cabs from Camus, Shafer, Girard and many others. I wouldn’t say it was a California profile since the wines I drank last night were also from California.

What wines do you prefer to drink and is there a difference between drinking wines and tasting wines?

Cheers,
Terry