About this blog

I’m a student and lover of wine and literature. I’ve dedicated my life to traversing the worlds of writing and wine, and this site is a journal of my pursuits.

If you’re curious about my vision and how I operate, I’ll explain a little more…

I taste a lot of wine under a lot of different circumstances, double-blind, single-blind, sighted, in wineries, at dinner with friends, at home with a book. I try to make these circumstances known in my posts so readers can take them into consideration.

I score almost all the wines I taste according to the well-known 100-point scale. Wine nerds love debating the usefulness or uselessness of the 100-point scale, but this debate bores me. I use the scale because it makes sense to me and helps me to compare each individual wine with others I’ve tasted over the years. I’m one guy with one palate slapping a number on something that cannot be quantified. Criticize my scores, mock the entire enterprise of scoring wine as ridiculous, that’s fine by me. I find it to be a helpful tool, so I use it. 

I do receive wine samples from a variety of sources, and I make it known in my posts which wines are received as samples.

I review a lot of wines for David White and the crew at the daily wine blog Terroirist. Those reviews frequently appear on this blog as well, which I mention in my posts. The guys and gals at Terroirist are passionate, wise and fucking awesome, and you should check out the site right after reading this.

My writing has been published in a wide variety of outlets, but I’m not currently employed by any publishers. The books I write about on this blog are selected because I wanted to read them. I write about the books that inspire me. 

If you’re interested in sending samples of wine or books for review, please email me at isaacjamesbaker@yahoo.com with “Review Request” in the subject line. I cannot guarantee every sample will be posted, but I’ll try my damndest. And I’ll be honest, because that’s the only way I know how to write.

Cheers!