Welcome to TheWineRater.com

NEW! April 25th, 2011 - A new year and a new take on many old bottles. Moving requires a tidying up of the cellar as wine doesn't really fair well on a moving truck in the heat of June. There are wine shipping options available, but not within the budget of the small collector like myself. I have thus far avoided the urge to acquire thousands of bottles because of our fluid lifestyle, but I still haven't bought any wine this year as I drink down our collection. It has been nice to pass back by many an old bottle, re-acquaint myself with it's flavor, and remember the trip upon which I acquired it. Wine is for me an intimate way to remember a journey, or a day when a bottle was acquired. Today I opened up a bottle of Havens 2001 Syrah which I got on a hot summer day five years ago. It was the day of the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon, along side of which they used to run a 10K. I ran the 10K that day (59:19) and afterward there was a tasting with local vineyards in Sonoma square. We continued tasting that afternoon, driving around and found Havens. We were the only ones there that day and had a wonderful time tasting outside in the sunshine with our 1 and 3 year old running about. So many Napa tasting rooms frown on children so it was a welcome respite as I remembered running about vineyards while my parents tasted wine 2 decades before. I bought several bottles that day from Havens, and the winery has since been sold to a company that went bankrupt, so that is an experience I will never have again - but the memory of it is captured in a bottle. Archives