Have you ever read a glowing restaurant review that made your mouth water so much you immediately made reservations, only to find yourself looking at a beautifully crafted plate containing one bite, a swirl of sauce reduction and a bit of mushroom foam? Lovely, but not your style.
Same thing goes for wine. You open a highly rated bottle only to think, “Meh.” If you don’t like the taste, what’s the point of all those accolades and 90-plus ratings?
This happened to me until I realized that my palate, like yours, is unique. And neither your palate nor mine always matches the palate of the folks who assign wine scores. Just because they think it’s good doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll think it’s good.
Enter My Wine Tribe
The purpose of My Wine Tribe is to help you determine the wines you like and the reasons you like them: your palate. Start by taking the My Wine Tribe quiz. Your answers will uncover your likes and dislikes when it comes to scents and flavors. At the end of the quiz, you’ll be matched to one of four Wine Tribes whose members share your flavor preferences. Watch the site to see what others in your tribe recommend. Because you share palate preferences, if they love a particular wine, you probably will too.
How do we know which wines you’ll like? We host blind tastings to find the bottles each tribe loves. Then we publish our recommendations, sorted by tribe. Our reviews are impartial. We don’t accept advertising and our tasters don’t see prices or descriptions before tasting and rating the wines. So, while our feedback might be irreverent and a bit random, it’s always honest.
About Me
I’m Stephanie Byington and I founded My Wine Tribe in 2012 because I believe wine should be unpretentious, accessible and fun. I’m a member of the Developed Tribe, a Certified Specialist of Wine, and I’ve worked in the wine industry in marketing and innovation.
When I am not working, I’m usually hosting a wine tasting, cooking or adventuring near my hometown of Seattle or in a far-off land—preferably one that has good wine. I’m often accompanied by my handsome husband Big Red, who is in the Complex Tribe, and our pup Deuce who, with his questionable taste in street food, is in a tribe all his own.
A Note About “Tribes”
I have been thinking about whether the use of the word “tribes” to group wine lovers might be offensive or inappropriate, given the longstanding use of the term to identify indigenous people in the United States and around the world. So I asked my readers as well as experts in diversity, equity and inclusion for their thoughts. No one I spoke with had a clear-cut answer for me, but the fact that I was asking made me realize that I needed to do something. While I think words are important, I believe actions are even more so. Thus, I am committed to including wine from winemakers or winery owners of color in all of our blind tastings. I hope this helps us all learn about and support greater diversity in the wine industry.
Shout Outs
Without the help of many people, I could not have done this. Shout outs to Carol Hoffman, Alice Patterson, Mary Bruno and Libby Waldo for helping to get the blog up and running. Big thanks to Andrew Rondeau at We Build Your Blog for ongoing technical support, Jeff Fornier, sommelier and wine buyer at Esquin Wines for helping select wines for our tastings, and Kathleen Donnelly for her incredible editorial talents.
I must also give a huge shout out to many of my fellow wine lovers, food bloggers and researchers out there on the worldwide web. They inspired many of the quiz questions, so please check out their work!
– Wine Folly
– Wine Geeks
– The Wine Hub
– Barticulate
– Arnie Millan