Wine & Dine Advocate: Introduction

Thank you for the flattering introduction by my dearly beloved Fiona (DBF).

The intention to start a wine and dine blog has been in my head for the longest time. The trigger point had been the past week of intense wining and dining for DBF’s week-long birthday celebrations. We had realised that we should document all our great food and wine exploits as well as give a detailed critique based on our amateurish palate.

Being a controller and accountant by training, I like numbers and reading into them. So I have devised a 100 points rating system for food and will be adopting parker’s 100 point system for the wines.

First, some housekeeping matters… in order to avoid future confusions with Wine & Dine magazine, the official name of this blog will be known as the Wine And Dine Advocate (WADA) …sounds catchier. Hopefully, one day it will be published as a magazine so that I can retire from my current job to concentrate on wining and dining! and writing about it.

The dining experience will be assessed based on the all original, officially-licensed, copyrighted-protected WADA 100 point rating system as follows:

Criteria (Max points awarded)

Food component (65 pts) categorised as follows:
Presentation (10pts) -Colour or brilliance, appeal
Aroma (15pts) -Intensity, complexity, allure
Taste (30pts) - Purity and complexity of flavours, tastiness factor, freshness, aftertaste
Bonus (10pts)

Other components (35 pts) categorised as follows:
Service (10pts) -Politeness, service speed and responsiveness, X-(tra mile) factor
Setting (10pts) -Ambience or character, level of cleanliness / hygiene
Menu (5pts) -Variety of choices, extensitivity of menu
Overall (10pts) - Soul and uniqueness.
_________
Total 100 pts

Ratings will be presented as such (65+35)pts = 100pts, the 65pts representing purely the food component of the score.

In addition, a Quality Price Index (QPI) score will be given to identify the dining establishments that serve great food at reasonable prices.

1 -----> Major pass
2
3
4
5 ----->So-so can try
6
7
8
9
10 ----> Try it at least once in your lifetime

Being a wine enthusiast, my gripe with restaurants is the excessive corkage fee that some establishments charge. It absolutely infuriates me when the establishment in question doesn’t have a wine list or lists just a label each of a red and a white. To me, wine to food is like pepper to soup, curry to prata, freshly squeezed lime to mee siam and a whole load of other synergistic combinations. Therefore, I have devised another KPI to measure the “wine-friendliness” of an establishment.

The Wine Friendly Index (WFI)

A : Free corkage, excellent stemware, waiters have good knowledge of wines n how to serve it.
B
C
D : Slightly overpriced corkage, standard ikea-class stemware, waiters at least can differentiate between white vs red wine.
E
F : Avoid mention of wine here. Abnoxiously priced corkage or does not allow BYOB or wines to be consumed at all.

Wines will be rated based on the parker 100 point scale as per below:

Criteria (Max points awarded)

Base (50pts) - All wines ratings range from 50 - 100 pts.
Colour / Appearance (5pts) - Clarity,Intensity, Brightness, Purity
Aroma / Bouquet (15pts) - Intensity, Multi-dimensions, Cleanliness, Allure
Palate / Taste (20pts) - Intensity & Balance, Tannins, Acidity Depth & Length (Finish), Cleanliness,Complexity.
General (10pts) - Aging potential, Character, Overall quality/attractiveness, Soul