The Somm: My name is Erek Lively, I am a sommelier and work in the wine industry. Most of my education has been formal through various wine schools, such as the Napa Valley Wine Academy, Yorkshire Wine School, and of course the Court of Master Sommeliers. Though in addition to my wine education I hold a Master of Arts in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds. I decided that wine shouldn’t be a secret that is horded so I came up with this blog idea to share some thoughts on wines that haven’t appeared on our show just yet.
The Mooch: Karly is a gemology student at the Gemological Institute of America.
We are based out of Reno, Nevada. It is our goal to make wine accessible to everyone. The industry has long hoarded knowledge and we aim to share it.
Points?
Robert Parker created a point system that has long been used in the wine industry and to many average consumers they look for that little seal that says “90 points” before they buy. We won’t be using a 100 point system, though I do believe that they have a purpose. Instead we will use a five point system. Wine that is bad, like dead corpse in a Virginia summer bad, will be a 1. Quality day drink wines will be a 3. Did god pour that wine directly into our glasses? Does it sing across every aspect? That is a 5.
Budgeting and Sourcing
Ultimately the goal of this blog and accompanying YouTube series will be to educate the average consumer on the wines available to them. We will generally only be tasting wines under thirty dollars. I am sure we will eventually open bottles on the higher end. The cheapest full bottle we have purchased for this show values in at $2.97.
Sourcing our wines is a wild card. I work at a wine store and will be bringing many of the bottles home from there. We also plan on making full use of grocery chains.