Welcome to the Power Tasting blog.
A few years ago, we – Lucie Gauthier and Steve Ross (a married couple living in Manhattan) – set out to write a book about wine tasting. We are avid lovers of wine from all over the world and have travelled widely to wine growing regions on four continents. However, we don’t feel qualified to offer advice or even public opinions about wine.
[Well, that’s not exactly true. Steve offers two rules: 1. Know what you like. 2. Remember what it’s called.]
Our objective was and still is to offer suggestions to the traveler who wishes to visit wineries and taste good wine. We are writing to the vacationer, not the connoisseur. We want to empower the visitor to get the maximum advantage out of each visit, not to be intimidated by wine snobs on either side of the bar and to be able to taste – not drink – as much as possible within the boundaries of safety and sanity.
Writing the book, to be named Power Tasting, was interrupted by the damage done to our home by Hurricane Sandy and the year and a half of clean-up, restoration and renovation after the storm. That is all done and we haven’t finished the book. We have come to understand how difficult it is to do that while running a home and a business and generally enjoying life. We’re still at it and will publish as soon as we can, but have decided in the meantime to start this blog. Our book is going to focus on wine tasting in Napa Valley but the blog will cover the tasting experience everywhere we have been and will go in the future. And we’ll welcome input from anyone who is kind enough to read our blog.
As mentioned, comments about wine will be incidental. We’re focusing on the overall experience, including the service, knowledge of the personnel, crowd management, artwork, architecture and the overall ambience of the wineries we visit. We may even mention where to have a picnic or take a walk in the garden. And we may write about some restaurants, shops and other things to do while on a wine tasting trip.
We certainly won’t be posting every day but we will do so frequently and will check for comments as often as we can. So come take a very pleasant trip with us to some of the prettiest places we know: Wine Country.