I ponder my strategy as I catch up on some required reading, listen to the rain falling and drink coffee. I'll finish reading, go for a bike ride [rain notwithstanding], and I'll eat a massive late lunch. Of the 65 whiskies presented last year, I made it through 15, mainly because I was trying to fully analyze the dram. It went something like this: pour a taste, go hide in the corner, write my tasting notes, rinse out my glass with distilled water [which I carried on my person via a pocket flask], go back pour the next taste and repeat. This approach took time and I'm sure I looked like Gollum or Renfield.

I want to try more this year. That means less notation, maybe more socializing, if something "Eureka's!" me, I'll quickly contemplate and move on. That's at least the game plan for now.

The pictured coffee mug [Ralph Lauren Fraser Tartan, Wedgwood] was a gift to me from my college roommate Alan Wentworth. Alan was the first of my peers to encourage me to drink wine. In 1992 when he was finished at UT, I asked if I could have it. I promised to take good care of it. 19 years later . . . Look.

Anthony Garcia
www.wineisdivine.com
http://twitter.com/wineisdivine