About

My name’s Sarah and I’m an American living in Mallorca who loves reading, writing, travelling, hiking, riding horses, eating delicious food and of course soaking up (figuratively and literally) as much information as I can about wine. That’s me in Oporto earlier this year where I fell in love with Portuguese wine (not just the fortified stuff).

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Although I’ve often woken up with the dreaded purple tongue ever since I was in my twenties, my wine education has been spotty at best and I think my zeal for 1) finding a good bargain, 2) trying weird shit I’ve never heard of and 3) being drawn to pretty labels has, together with my absolutely terrible memory, led me down a fun but somewhat pointless path of trying a lot of wines I wasn’t exactly crazy about, not being able to remember the few that really blew me away, and having a pretty inconsistent idea of what I like and how to find it.

So now I’m trying to be a bit more systematic, with some major goals for the coming years:

  • GOAL # 1 – Have a solid enough idea of what I like and what I don’t to be able to confidently choose a delicious wine from a wine list or shop, even if I’ve never had it before. My Spanish and Argentinian friends who don’t know from Cabernet consistently pick WAY better wines than me. This is an everlasting source of shame.
  • Have a good feeling of the flavor and styles (terroir if you’re feeling fancy) of the main wine regions I can actually buy wines from without spending a fortune – this is mainly Spain and France and I’m breaking it down into the ones below. Basically I’d like to be able to recognize any of these in a blind tasting:
    • Rioja
    • Ribera del Duero
    • Rueda
    • Rías Baixas
    • Navarra
    • El Bierzo
    • Priorat
    • Mallorca
    • Bordeaux
    • Burgundy
    • Côtes du Rhône
    • Champagne (ok, this one’s pretty easy)
    • Loire Valley
    • Languedoc-Rousillon / Côte de Provence
  • Be able to taste and understand the different varietals most common in these wines; both regarding the strengths they can bring to a coupage as well as how they can stand out as monovarietals, specifically:
    • Tempranillo
    • Grenache / Garnacha
    • Syrah
    • Merlot
    • Cabernet Sauvignon
    • Mencía
    • Manto Negro
    • Callet
    • Pinot Noir
    • Sauvignon Blanc
    • Godello
    • Albariño
    • Viura
    • Mencía
    • Prensal Blanc
    • Malvasia
    • Chardonnay
    • Viognier
  • Understand and identify by taste the role vintage can play in a wine, as well as start and not absolutely ruin (I feel like “maintain” is a little ambitious with my lack of knowledge) a wine collection to be able to further explore this dimension over the coming years.
  • THE BIG ONE: Sign up for and complete the University of the Balearic Isles Sommelier course next autumn 🙂

At any rate it seems to me that I should be cataloging my “likes” and “dislikes” since my memory is so terrible, so I’m going to try to maintain this spreadsheet with the different wines I taste.

Please bear with me (unless you’re already bored, in which case PLEASE find something more fun to do with your time, I completely understand) while I bumble through freestyle and formal tastings, winery visits, book reviews and general musings as I desperately try to remember something I’ve learned ;P