DiWineTaste Wine Guide: Five Thousand!

 I have always considered DiWineTaste a project in progress. From the initial idea of 2000 - that is creating an independent publication about wine culture and critics, becoming reality in 2002 with the publication of the first issue - DiWineTaste has walked a quite long way. It was too easy to understand that initial idea - which had no pretension to be final - has changed over time, by adapting to new ideas and times, even by adopting the suggestions of our readers. From that initial idea, today exist - like to say - the fundamental pillars which have always characterized DiWineTaste, to which we added many others. The initial spirit has never changed: my will to promote the culture of wine has always had the priority over every choice. I am not going to tell or believe this goal has been achieved or honored: I am perfectly aware of the fact every goal is just a new beginning.

 One of the elements characterizing DiWineTaste since the beginning of its journey is the Wine Guide. To that have been added, in the following years, Aquavitae - our Distillate Guide - and Wine Place Guide. Tools being very appreciated by our readers, something of which we are certainly very glad of. The availability of our two apps for Android and iOS has also contributed to the frequency of use of our Guides, in particular in the evening and night. A tool like the app allows, in fact, to use our Guides even when you are on the go, for example when you are at a restaurant or a wine shop. In particular, Wine Guide - which is capable of suggesting a pairing for a wine by simply entering a dish or its ingredients - records a substantial number of accesses in the evening and at night.

	DiWineTaste Wine Guide

 Two months ago our Wine Giude has achieved a goal we consider to be important. Last March 2015 our Wine Guide has in fact reached the goal of reviewing five thousand wines, a job we did in the course of our “almost thirteen” years of activity. Every wine has been strictly tasted by using the evaluation method called “blind tasting”, that is without revealing to the taster the characteristics of the wine. Five thousand wines in almost thirteen years, allowed us to suggest every day to our readers at least one wine, by providing sensorial characteristics and food pairing. It is not about self celebration, something I generally dislike: it is the simple statement of what we did, in this sense, with our Wine Guide. The will to suggest at least a wine every day to our readers is, moreover, essential for the dedicated section found in DiWineTaste home page.

 During this “almost thirteen” years - to be precise, we will celebrate the beginning of our fourteenth year the next September 2015 - our Wine Guide has changed quite a lot in regard of the initial version. To tell the truth, when the first issue of DiWineTaste was published - 9 September 2002 - the Wine Guide was not even part of the initial project. Three months later we realized the job done with our tasting and reviews deserved a dedicated place, in order to keep track of what have been poured in our glasses. Our Guide is not “seasonal”: it is a chronological directory of our tasting activity. This type of organization allows, among the other things, to evaluate the qualitative trend of a wine over vintages, by using our scoring system consisting in diamonds and stars. Something well known by our readers, scores are expressed from one to five diamonds; star is given to those wines considered to be excellent in their category.

 Our Wine Guide has been officially released on January 1st, 2003. At those times, just after four months of DiWineTaste activity, we reviewed a little more than fifty wines. Thirteen years later that number increased one hundred times, therefore reaching five thousand wines singularly tasted and reviewed by using the “blind tasting” technique. Our goal has always been to suggest to our readers at least one wine daily, therefore in DiWineTaste are being tasted and reviewed more than thirty wines each month in order to achieve this goal. In the following years, our Wine Guide has been integrated to our Wine Place Guide, our directory of restaurants, wine shops and business related to wine. In order to allow our readers a better interaction with our publication, it is now a long time they are allowed to publish their comment and opinions about the wines we review. The reviews of our readers are part of our Guide and published in the page of the respective wines.

 The release of our app DiWineTaste Mobile for Android and iOS allowed new ways about using our Guides, including the Wine Guide. The last update is about the graphical aspect of the pages dedicated to wines, by replacing the old and totally descriptive layout in favor of a more practical and immediate division according to each phase of tasting. New wine pages show in fact, since some months, small icons associated to appearance, smell, taste, overall and wine making aspects about each wine. The old pages, at least for the moment, will keep their old style and, time will tell, a day we could also update them in order to show the new graphical style. Five thousand wines represent for us an important goal. We are however aware of the fact this is not an impressive number, nevertheless, it is not frivolous as well, it tells, as a matter of fact, the total commitment and passion we dedicated to wine in thirteen years. Ready to continue our journey, always having the nose smelling what a glass can give.