My harshest critic

As a I said before, my wife likes wine a lot but only has 4 grades.

Lowest is Bad or "toss it". This doesn't happen too often, since the fact I'm writing this wine blog means I don't purchase bad wine. But occasionally I open a wine that isn't here style. Say an Italian Nebbiolo or Barbera. A few Malbecs have caused a bad reaction from her.

Next is Tolerable or "there is nothing wrong with this but not much good or I can tolerate the flaws". This is usually a cheap wine or something from France (Bordeaux or some Rhones). She's not into sweet whites much either so Riesling, Gewurtraminer and some Chenin Blancs are here.

Then we have Good or fine which means "there is nothing wrong and some good notes". This is the vast majority of the wines. Which is rather anti-climactic. Lovely wines. Award winning wines. Wonderful diverse wines representing the world of wine. And all I typically get is "it's fine". In a grading scale this is a "B". Some wines are a B- and others are a B+. Like last night, we had a Kaesler 2004 Shiraz Horse-something. Parker 93, Tanzer 91, WS 88. And it was just too tangy with blueberry notes. A B- for her (and me).

And then there is Great. The equivalent of an "A". I live for Great. But we don't find Great very often. As in once every 18 months. I usually hear something like "Oh this is gooood." The last bottle I remember was the Columbia Crest 2004 Cabernet Grand Estates and before that it was the 2001 of the same wine.

And at the high end of Great, there is the rarest of creatures. There is "I want to bathe in this". Which has happened all of twice in the the last 6 years. The Justin 2001 Cabernet Paso Robles was the first. Truly a magnificent wine; rich, smooth, just delicious. It was very expensive at the time ($24), but I bought a case. We had seven of the bottles in the next year and most were super. A classic wine I'll never forget. My score: 95. And this past week, the Schild 2006 Shiraz Barossa produced a "Oh my god, this is good. My mouth is exploding with flavors."

It's the rarity of Great that makes it all the more satisfying.