Oh no, this question. One of those, “Why is the sky blue? Or, “What is happiness?” -type questions that turn into sweaty, 10,000-word essays.  Fighting my instincts, I’ll try to keep this much shorter.

A wine is an unfeeling item minimal used for our nourishment and maximally for our pleasure. It is a good, if you will. And while we can damage this good, wine, we cannot hurt it. If we drink a wine, or we throw it at a wall, or wash a pet in it, we haven’t hurt the wine or abused it. Arguably, we might have misused it, but we have not behaved immorally towards the wine.

We can do what we want with a wine without concerns of harming the wine. Wine exists for our use; and therefore, a good wine is one that serves the purpose of its user. That’s it. If we have low expectations for a wine, then most examples we try will be good. If we have high expectations for a wine, then it will rarely be good. And if we have impossible expectations for a wine, a good wine will be impossible to find.

A good wine serves the purpose of its user: As unromantic a definition as you can find. Albeit, I’d argue, a true one. But what is a very good wine? Well, I’ll have many more words to write about that…