Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Wine Journey: Wine Profile of a Master Sommelier

The exercise of attempting to taste all of the wines listed as Wines of the Decade (http://andrewmcnamara.blogspot.com/2009/12/wines-of-decade.html) by Andrew McNamara, a Master Sommelier, is a journey into/along the palate of a Master.  Aggregating the data underlying the list allows us to look into the mind of the Master and, in so doing, build his "wine profile."  In this, and subsequent posts, we will analyze the data underlying the Wines of the Decade list in order to build such a wine profile for Andrew McNamara.

The Wines of the Decade list stretches from the 1940s to the 2000s, with each intervening decade represented.  The decades with the highest representation are the 1980s (31% of all wines) and the 1990s (39% of all wines).  French wines are by far the most doiminant, comprising a full 62% of the list.  The next nearest country is the US with 15% of the listed wines.  French wines comprised 66% of the wines from the 1980s and 62% of the wines from the 1990s.  Based on the foregoing, we can surmise that Andrew has a preference for French wines that are vintage 1980s and 1990s.

In future posts we will examine regional preferences, wine styles, and varietal styles, as revealed by the list.

2 comments:

  1. Please note that I am not a Master of Wine (hoping to start studying for it in the near future), but am a Master Sommelier.

    I certainly do have a preference for the French and German - and a more recent obsession with Barolo and Barbaresco. I generally prefer to drink lower-alcohol, classically styled wines (though there are many on my list that are neither lower in alcohol nor classically styled!).

    ReplyDelete
  2. My bad. I made the same dyslexic error with the Master Somm at Bond Estates (as pointed out by Hlyterroir). I will fix. Thanks for your input and hope you are able to continue adding perspective as we continue on this journey.

    ReplyDelete