Why the Wine Tastes Better at the Winery

Because context kills scores.

You know that feeling when you open the bottle you brought back from that gorgeous little winery and it just... doesn’t hit the same? The wine’s not bad. It’s the same vintage. Same label. But something’s missing. That’s not your palate failing you. That’s context doing its job.

At the winery, everything’s stacked in the wine’s favor. You’re relaxed. You’re face to face with the person who made it. You’re standing ten feet from the vines. There’s cheese. Maybe olives. Maybe a breeze that smells like wild herbs and wet soil. You’re tasting the wine in its natural habitat. And that matters. More than anyone wants to admit.

But here’s the lie the industry keeps selling: wine quality is a number. 92. 94. 99. People shop like they’re picking stocks, chasing the high scores like they mean something absolute. Like they’re scientific. Like they can tell you how that wine will feel when you open it in your kitchen after a long day with a reheated bowl of pasta.

They can’t.

Wine scoring is a system designed for control. Blind tastings. Dozens of bottles. One-ounce pours. A checklist. The wines that win are the ones that don’t offend. That show well in a lineup. That hit the marks. You want a wine that scores 95? Easy. Hire the right consultant. Pump the oak. Tweak the acid. Hit the profile. That number doesn’t tell you if it’s good. It tells you it’s safe.

The truth: most wines today can be engineered to land above 90. That’s the baseline. That’s the easy part. The hard part is making something you remember. Something that tastes better because of who you were with. Where you were sitting. What song was playing. Whether or not your phone was face-down for once.

That’s why we don’t list scores. Not because we wouldn’t score well—we don’t work with anything that wouldn’t clear 90. But because chasing points makes people miss the point. Wine isn’t a contest. It’s not a number. It’s a moment. And moments can’t be standardized.

You don’t need a sommelier certification to know when a wine makes the night better. You don’t need a 97-pointer to feel something. You just need a bottle that came from someone who gave a damn, poured in the right moment, for the right reason.

That’s what we do. We curate bottles that are already great—and then get out of the way so they can find the right people. You. Your table. Your Thursday night.

Forget the numbers. Drink the moment.

Drink Different. Or Die Bored.

Cheers,
Bruno