Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 16

Wine & Spirits
31st Annual Buying Guide

What We Believe

Everyone's taste is different; there is no right or wrong.
OUR TASTE IS OUR SIGNATURE. IT'S AS INDIVIDUAL AS OUR DNA. At W&S, we believe

WE BELIEVE IN SPENDING TIME WITH A
WINE. Often our critics will taste a wine

a good critic, like any thoughtful taster, has
learned the subtle likes and dislikes of her
own tastes, has studied what sways his reactions and has thoughtfully considered what
might sway others.

over a number of days, looking to see how
it evolves. We believe that a wine should
be resistant to the negative forces of oxidation: that it should benefit from air and not
quickly dissolve into volatility. We consider
this a valuable assay of great wine, as well as
a predictor of a wine's potential development
in your cellar.

WE BELIEVE IN BLIND TASTINGS. All the
wines we rate and review are tasted in our
offices blind. Our first round is with others in
the wine trade-people we respect for knowing their own tastes. Then critics taste the
recommended wines again, still blind, to consider how delicious and distinctive the wines
might be, and to compare them with others
we have tasted from the same region. We
set up this process because we know we are
human and may well be swayed by tasting
with the people who make or sell the wine, or
by tasting wines in the place where they are
made.
W&S critics, from top left:
Joshua Greene,
Tara Q. Thomas,
Luke Sykora,
Patricio Tapia,
Patrick J. Comiskey and
Stephanie Johnson,
and tasting director
Sarah Sutel Looper

WE EMBRACE DIFFERENT OPINIONS. While
we may develop preferences for certain
styles, our pact with our readers is to leave
those preferences at the door of our tasting
room. Our critics look to our panelists to
help us better understand our own preferences and prejudices. We look for balance
and harmony in the wines we taste. And for
the greatest wines, we look for identity.
WE BELIEVE BALANCE COMES IN MANY
FORMS. A profound wine might be expressed
with power or, perhaps more astonishingly,
with subtlety and elegance. As critics, we
value both extremes, though some of us prefer the powerful end of the spectrum, while
others champion the quiet side.

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2018

WE BELIEVE SENSITIVE FARMING SUSTAINS THE IDENTITY OF A WINE'S ORIGIN
IN THE BOTTLE. Having tasted an unnatural
amount of wine in our short lives, and having
researched the wines that excite us the most,
we have come to believe we can taste the sensitivity that goes into farming a vineyard.
Some growers treat their vines like manufacturing plants, and though they might produce delicious juice, their wines will rarely
be distinctive. Some winegrowers are more
connected to the lives of their vines, and how
they farm impacts their land as well as their
own well-being. We cannot prove the connection, but we believe their work translates into
the sustainability of the wine's flavor identity.

WE INVITE YOU TO TASTE FOR YOURSELF.
We gather our Top 100 Wineries and their
top-rated wines once a year in a single issue,
and in a single night at our Top 100 event in
San Francisco. There is something different
about the energy in the room at the Top 100
than at any other wine tasting we attend. We
like to believe it is the buzz around the wines,
the energy they have carried from the vines
to the bottle to your glass, shepherded with
care and sensitivity, ultimately and nakedly
delicious. n

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017