After  much internal debate, I’ve decided to use this Web site to chronicle another passion of mine. At first I thought I’d keep this a place for my artistic expressions and once-in-a-while personal rants. But wine is personal to me, so its time I start adding my reviews here.

I’m a wine geek. It’s something that happened almost a decade ago, when after I just graduated college I decided to take a job in a wine shop, something simple that would give me plenty of time for writing. Before that, the most I knew about wine came from one fun dinner in the late nineties I had on NYC’s restaurant row with an exotic woman who chuckled when she learned I never tried wine and ordered a few bottles of Beaujolais-Village, which we got drunk on. Her name was Sari.

But after a few weeks at the wine shop, and thanks to an awesome manager, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef, former restaurant manager, and salt-of-the-earth great guy named Ken, I discovered there was a whole world of enjoyment in learning about and tasting the varied fruits of fermented grape juice. Within a few years I was helping him buy wines for the shop, running tastings and even helping teach a small wine school.

Since leaving the shop I’ve never lost the love. Though, to be honest, I did have a nearly three-year drying out period, which, if you’ve read any of my fiction, you might realize why. Luckily, I killed that beast.

Now I enjoy wine when I can.

For a short while I was writing wine reviews and news items for Long Island Business News, but the niche just wasn’t there for the paper. I even tried starting my own wine-only blog, but I couldn’t devote the time I needed to make it great. So here we are.

The plan is this, I’ll write about what I taste, honestly, with all the detail and back info I can find, so if you ever find one of these wines in your travels you’ll have one opinion to go on.

There may be a slight Long Island focus, only because that’s where I live and there’s nothing like fully investigating and enjoying the wine that’s grown on the soil you live. But I buy wine from all regions, so there will definitely be a mix.

You won’t, however, see to many reviews of high-end wines like raisin-y Amarone’s and burly Barolos. I can’t afford them and I’m a sucker for a good bargain wine anyway.

So, enough with this toast, we drink now.

© 2010, Henry E. Powderly II. All rights reserved.

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