Pop!  Whee!  Champagne all round and welcome to Quaffle!

My stalwart Concise Oxford gives the definition of “wine” a full 8.5 centimetres of definition, which isn’t too shabby.  Its first definition reads: “wine 1. n. Fermented grape-juice as alcoholic drink (dry and sweet, still and sparkling, white and red wine).”

Frankly, I don’t think that quite covers it, do you?  Where’s the poetry, the beauty? That delicious anticipatory sensation in the mouth as you lift a glass of chilled champagne towards a parched throat?  What about the scent?  The many-layered aroma that emanates from the bowl of the glass, subtly warmed by the hand?  I can understand why Oxford didn’t get in touch with me to help them write the definition, since I’m virtually a nobody as far as Oxford is concerned, and also my contribution on wine would have two or three volumes and a supplementary poetry guide.  But honestly, can you imagine looking into the eyes of someone who makes your skin tingle happily and asking them out for a glass of ‘fermented grape-juice’?

Ahem.  As you can see, I’ve got a fair bit to say on matters oenological. In the interests of not boring everybody in my day-to-day life with enthusiastic recounts of whatever I most recently drank, I thought it best to open a wine blog and share my thoughts here.

I’m still ironing out a few kinks here and there, so bear with me: for a start, I’m not 100% sure about my rating methods.  I won’t be applyiing wine judging standards, since that’s just not how I roll. But I’ll have to determine some way of measuring the wines I review, otherwise it’ll just be post after post of me saying ‘Mm, pretty good’.  Whichever way you slice it, that’s dashed tedious. I’ll spend a bit of time coming up with a set of standards in order to gauge each wine by, and hopefully that will ensure clarity and accuracy.

One final note: as an Australian blogger, I’ll mostly be sampling Australian and New Zealand wines.  I’ll also be making references to the wine growing regions here, and using Australian terminology (for example, ‘Shiraz’ instead of ‘Syrah’).  All of this is minor stuff, of course, but I’d just like to get it out in the open so nobody writes me snippy emails correcting my terminology or demanding to know what on Earth a Clare Valley cab sav is.

And now, fill your glasses, people, and let’s have a toast.  To Quaffle!