Who is Justin Christoph?

Justin Christoph has dedicated his life to wine and worked as a
wine specialist for seven years at Christie's, Acker Merrall &
Condit and Morrell & Co.  He has participated and organized
numerous tastings for these organizations as well as Executive
Wine Seminars and Manhattan Wine Company.  His first love was
Bordeaux, but has since gone on to cheat all around the world
with a focus on Northern Rhones as well rieslings from Alsace and
the Mosel.  His favorite wine is Chateau Musar.
Contact Me
My Wine Philosophy

This is about ten years old, but I still enjoy reading it.

Why Numbers Make Me Feel Cold

I drink a glass of wine to feel warm in much the same way one
would curl up with a favorite book on a brisk fall day. In a larger
sense, a long winter has descended on us towards the beginning
of the new millennium, and certain segments of the population may
have more financial assets to procure trappings of the good life,
but esthetic bankruptcy is universal.

By opening a bottle of wine and giving it expression in my unique
circumstances, however less than a projected ideal, I recreate the
winemaker's art. As a reader would give voice and life to a dead
poet's verse.  Whatever energy I project into wine tasting comes
back to me two fold from the excitement and wonder elicited by
both the wines I perceive to my liking and those I obverse at a
particular moment.

I am fueled by the drive to try something new; to wager on a wine
that might take chances, which is by contrast to a world of flat lines
and vacuous standards. And, yes, wine rating scores. Yet, it is
reassuring sometimes to have my expectations trumped by a wine
or a wine tasting compatriot. The drive to compel everything to
make sense and line up neatly can only end up in either a
desolated landscape or an internal imbalance akin to madness.
From the second I touch a wineglass my fingerprints are all over it.
Why make its singular contents a tyranny for many tongues. It
would be a grim and foreboding experience to imbibe a world
where every deviation, wine and enjoyable circumstance are taken
into the accounting. An accounting of winners, losers and those
who end up playing both sides of the card before their sun sets. I
prefer not to drink a wine because it is reputed to be better than
another wine or to feel better than another person by drinking it.
Living one good life does not necessarily negate other
constructions of an esthetically pleasing existence.

In a disheartening world of corporate take over bid cliché's and
homogenized lowest common denominators, it enheartens me that
there is still diversity in wine, in art and in life. People can
appreciate difference and partake in peculiarities. We should not
strive to manufacture wine any more than we should manufacture
consensus; instead, we should allow fruit and people to express
themselves.
How I Evaluate Wines

I prefer to commend and
broadly categorize rather
than score wines:



*** Sublime- truly
remarkable, memorable to
all senses; wines that
launch a thousand tongues
or paddles.

**Exceptional- exceeds
expectations, a top wine,
worth paying up for and
tracking down.

*Recommended-true to
form and type, worth
seeking out or suggesting
to friends.

Non starred-Not
commended-from average
to disappointing and
dismal; some atypical or
overpriced.