One Hundred and Fifty

 This month DiWineTaste celebrates a new important goal: issue number 150 - one hundred and fifty - of our publication. A journey began in 2002 - to be precise, 9 September 2002 at 10:10PM - when we uploaded by using FTP ((File Transfer Protocol) the first release of our web site and the first issue in PDF format (Portable Document Format). At those times, in fact, DiWineTaste was available in PDF format only and the Wine Guide would have been released few months later. It was a humble start, almost a whispered start, and I notified my friends about this new “adventure”, as well as wine producers of whom I had an e-mail address. With my surprise, many wine producers replied to this mail by sending their appreciation and wishes for the new magazine, most of them available to send their wines for a review. Many of them spread the word, something also helped by the Internet and search engines, and - at the end of October 2002 - that very first issue was read by a little more than two thousands people.

 One hundred and fifty DiWineTaste issues published in fourteen years - the fifteenth year will begin next October - in which we have written about wines and sensorial tasting. It was in fact my main goal to make of DiWineTaste a publication essentially about sensorial tasting, wine in particular. I have always believed the best way to understand a wine is to listen to it right from the glass, certainly not by reading other's words. In order to achieve this we need not only a wine - every wine, as they all have the same dignity - but also, and above all, the analytic cognition to understand it. Sensorial tasting, despite can be considered as a methodical technique leaving little or no space to emotions, certainly is the most efficient way to understand wine. Of course, wine is much more than this, a complex beverage that, last but not the least, is capable of giving emotions and pleasure. This is a very important aspect, nothing less than sensorial tasting technique, although it is about a different context.

 Since the first issue, DiWineTaste has always been focused on sensorial tasting and this subject has also been the main activity of our editorial and educational mission, also by having our readers involved in this aspect. Such us our events - a part existing since the day we started DiWineTaste - in which our readers meet producers, by listening to their stories and tasting their wines. I in fact believe the best way to understand a wine is always done by pouring it in a glass, taste and evaluate it according to our senses, something to be personally done. This is done, in particular, in an analytic and critical way, by using our senses, in order to better understand the nature of grapes, territories and producers. Of course, the emotional side of wine must not be forgotten, an essential characteristic, although it is essentially about personal and subjective perception instead of the context of objective understanding.

 One hundred and fifty DiWineTaste issues in which we focused on the many aspects of sensorial tasting, always aiming to give our readers the essential tools for the evaluation of wine. Sensorial tasting, in its technical nature and, for certain aspects to be considered an art because requires the use of senses, needs continuous practice and commitment. For this reason technical and theoretical knowledge are not enough in order to fully express this discipline and it must always and however supported by practice. In other words, the key to success for every taster certainly is the theoretical and technical knowledge but, above all, is to continuously tasting wines, of every style and quality. The first DiWineTaste issues have been mainly focused on technical and theoretical aspects of tasting, today, on the contrary, are mainly covered practical aspects, by suggesting our readers comparative study cases, as well as tasting by contrast.

 In these years we have also organized classes about wine and distillate sensorial tasting, as well as about enogastronomy. As a matter of fact, it is a sort of natural evolution of what we write in DiWineTaste, as theory cannot be enough in order to understand something. The same can be said about our application DiWineTaste Mobile for Android, iPhone and iPad, just another and modern way to use our publication. Our podcast can be seen with this very same point of view, a way giving our readers the chance of using DiWineTaste differently and by using different media. After all, by also considering my long career in software design and development, I think it is quite normal to implement these new media and ways. Nevertheless, it was right my mentality of software designer - in the many fields of computer technology I worked in - to make me believe since the beginning DiWineTaste should be available in Internet only. I have always believed in this choice, which came to my mind for the first time in 2000 and then realized in 2002 with the publication of the first issue of DiWineTaste.

 One hundred and fifty issues and fourteen years of DiWineTaste. A time and quantity maybe considered “important”, the result of a job done with commitment for a subject I am passionate about and interested in: sensorial tasting. Maybe, to be realistic, a pretty modest time and quantity if I look ahead and think about the future. When I think about what was DiWineTaste in 2002 and how it has become today, I admit it is quite hard to recognize it. Everything has changed since that initial idea, except for the PDF edition of the magazine, although adapted in the course of time. Another element which never changed since the first issue is the use of L^AT_EX2_ε in typesetting the magazine and from which are then created the pages in HTML format both for the website and mobile applications. Many things have changed and this is the sign of time going by, a sign things - unavoidably - are destined to change, as it is right to be. Another thing changed - and I am very proud of this - is the number of DiWineTaste readers. Whether the first issue counted a little more than 2000 readers, today the average number of readers is 155000. Maybe this is a little for some, maybe a lot for others, however I am aware of the fact that if this journey is still going on it is because of them. Thank you dear reader: the one hundred and fifty issues of DiWineTaste are dedicated to you.