I want to answer two of the most commonly asked questions we receive here at Sip…a wine store.

1. Do eco-friendly wines taste different?

I have customers ask me all the time if I can taste a difference between eco-friendly wines and conventional wines. My answer is sometimes. I find that taste is the largest difference in biodynamically produced wines. These wines tend to express a truer sense of place while the flavor profiles are more interesting and full of rich fruit, spice and mineral flavors. Biodynamic is sometimes viewed as controversial. When you combine the lunar calendar, Rudolph Steiner, and organic farming you definitely get controversy. At least biodynamic farmers are not only correcting their soil, they are rebuilding eco-systems. What bad could come from that?

I also taste a difference in Natural or non-manipulated wines. Once you open these wines they continue to develop and taste better two, three, and sometimes four days after you open them. I think this is the best and least expensive way to enjoy wine and Alice Feiring (a natural wine advacate) summed it up perfectly:

"How did natural wine and natural food become separated at birth? Why are drinkers (buyers) willing to accept additives in their wine they'd never accept in their food?" 

2. Why don’t our wines have ratings?

A lot of our wines do receive ratings, some from very well known wine publications. We choose not to post the ratings in the store for a few reasons. First, wine ratings are really someone else’s opinion. Second, it is an inexact science. There have been a few studies recently that have proven expert wine tasters can taste wines differently depending on the time of day they taste and where they taste. In that scenario, the same wine could receive a different score in the morning than if tasted at night.

Most importantly, however, is we enjoy answering questions for our customers and allowing them to develop their own opinions and palates. Why take some strangers suggestion, when you can learn to trust your own?!

If you need a rating to buy a wine, we can look them up for you. Otherwise, I suggest you throw caution to the wind and try something new.