Wine is my business and has been for almost two decades. I'm a wine broker specializing in American wines, especially those of the west. My job is to find, recommend and sell unique domestic wines mainly to individuals for their private use. I also consult to various organizations including hotels and restaurants. I must be able to match my customers' tastes in wine with what the market offers. I primarily represent hundreds of micro wineries. Most of the wines I sell are relatively unknown to the public, but are among the best in the world.

At first, like most people in the wine industry, I felt compelled to follow the internationally accepted system of grading wine (the 100-point grading system put into use by Robert Parker in the late 1970's.) However this system was very subjective to one person's taste - Robert Parker's. His 100-point system gives the illusion of the scientific objectivity to what, in my view, is essentially a subjective art. It isn't applicable or fair to the majority of sellers and consumers in America. I am also uncomfortable with the fact that Parker tends to favor foreign wines over American wines with no defensible basis for this preference.

Good wines must be expensive wines? Have you ever stood in the aisle of a store looking at two nearly identical products with different prices? Your judgment may be telling you to go for the less expensive one, but something inside makes you hesitate. If they were truly the same quality, wouldn't they have the same price? As you ponder what the hidden differences may be, you convince yourself that the more expensive wine must be worth more and is a better deal. Shouldn't you go with the more expensive one - just to be on the safe side?