A letter from Editor-in-Chief of Terroir Sense Wine Review

Establishing a wine review

Anything in life that is truly worthwhile depends on the quality of the people and processes that are involved in its creation. For this reason, at Terroir Sense we have a purposely chosen a small writing staff of internationally renowned wine experts who write all the reviews. Unlike what others might think, I respectfully submit that good wine writers are not a dime a dozen: it is a job and like every other job that is well-done, it requires a great deal of study, commitment, dedication, time, hard work, honesty, experience and knowledge.

What we can promise

Ever since I started writing about wine, the existence of potentially serious conflicts of interest has been apparent to me. For this reason, nobody writing for Terroir Sense accepts sponsored trips or accommodations, paying for all of his or her meals and travel expenses. Occasionally we can engage in lunch or dinner activities related to work, but will not accept anything more than reasonably simple, work-related, lunches and dinners in likewise establishments. Lunch or dinner in multi-starred, famous establishments will be paid for out of pocket by the staff writer, as I have done in countless occasions in the last thirty years spent writing about wine. In many instances, I have actually paid dinner for some of the world’s richest men and women; and as hilarious as that may sound, it is the way I want it to be.

I also firmly believe that a wine review cannot and should not cover only those wines belonging to the wine jet set. Clearly, a wine review needs to write about those wines that most pique the interest of readers; but I believe that wine writing is very much about education too, and for this reason I have always included in all my articles less well-known wineries that may not yet have big export markets but the wines of which are, as well as the grape varieties with which they are made and the places they are from, deserving to be better known.

Ultimately wine is about passion and spending time with people you care about. At Terroir Sense we would like our readers to go beyond the scores assigned to wines but to hopefully read and enjoy our articles in their entirety. After all, they are written with the express intention of providing an educational, interesting and hopefully fun moment too.

Our strategic ambition at Terroir Sense is to forever strengthen the bond with our subscribers thanks to our website and mobile applications that will allow readers to have a huge database of wine tasting notes, scores and articles at their fingertips. Any input from our subscribers will always be welcome: feel free to tell us what you think, as we are here to serve you. Wine is about joy, fun, passion, friendship, togetherness, learning, philosophy, sharing.

All of which is what Terroir Sense wants to be about.

Cheers!

Ian D’Agata
Editor-in-Chief of Terroir Sense Wine Review

Ian D'Agata

伊安·达加塔在葡萄酒领域耕耘超过30年,在葡萄酒品评、葡萄酒科研写作和葡萄酒教育等方面,都取得了杰出的成果,在葡萄酒行业和葡萄酒爱好者中,享有世界性声望。作为享誉国际的葡萄酒作家,他最近的两本著作《意大利原生葡萄品种》《意大利原生葡萄品种风土》被公认为意大利葡萄酒领域的权威著作;前者荣获2015年Louis Roederer国际葡萄酒作家大奖赛“年度最佳书籍奖”,他是唯一获此殊荣的意大利葡萄酒作家,并入选《洛杉矶时报》、《金融时报》、《纽约时报》评选的“年度葡萄酒书籍”榜单;后者被《纽约时报》和美国的Food & Wine杂志提名为年度最佳葡萄酒书籍。

Ian D’Agata has been writing and educating about wines for over thirty years. Internationally recognized as an distinguished expert, critic and writer on many wine regions, his two most recent, award winning books Native Wine Grapes of Italy and Italy's Native Wine Grape Terroirs (both published by University of California Press) are widely viewed as the "state of the art" textbooks on the subject. The former book won the Louis Roederer International Wine Awards Book of the Year in 2015 and was ranked as the top wine books of the year for the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times and the New York Times, while the latter was named among the best wine books of the year by Food & Wine Magazine and the NY Times.[:]

All Articles by the Author
Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 comments
  • Congratulations Ian and team!

    The site looks great and I am thrilled to see articles on varieties such as Recantina and Pelaverga Piccolo! Looking forward to all the fabulous content that you are sure to provide.

    Best regards,
    Andrea

    Andrea Eby
    Italian Programs Director
    Wine Scholar Guild
    http://www.winescholarguild.org

    • Ciaooooo Andrea,

      thanks for the words of encouragement and I’m very happy that you like the site/magazine and our attention to Italy’s little-known native grapes. We will continue to do so regularly in the future, and other non-Italian varieties that are deserving to be talked/written about more. Do let me/us know what your thoughts are any time you wish, you know I love reading what you have to say!
      Thanks and best of luck and success with your great job, it’s an important one!
      Ian

Ian D'Agata