This project has been in the back of my head for some time. It's actually what I originally imagined my old blog, Wine Rant, to be working towards, but it never quite panned out that way. This is still a work in progress, but the basic plan is simple; to write a long form essay a week about wine, beer, whisky or all three. I'll also do some aggregation of the week's booze news, usually with some critical commentary. And there will be tasting notes. All my notes from Wine Rant are here too. Wine Rant itself won't be updated anymore.

Yet another drinks trade site?

Yes.

Why?

Well, it's said that you should write what you want to read. When it comes to wine, beer, and whisky, the weight of PR has squeezed too much of the sort of thing I want to read out of what gets published. Things considered news are questionably so, and there's a sycophancy that pervades the trade press that makes me cringe. I don't begrudge it, per se; these things are businesses and have to turn a dime. And there are some excellent drinks writers out there, working hard and putting out great work.

However, there should be more alternatives available. Too many drinks sites act as fan forums. It's not good enough for there just to be a constant stream of praise and effusive notes of how lovely it is to be in this business and drink nice wine. Nothing gets better that way. Broken things don't get fixed, they get ignored. There's a lot in this industry that could and should be better. At the very least, there's a lot in this industry that should be thought through better.

The drinks trade sits in a bubble, and rather than acknowledging that and attempting to poke and pop it whenever possible, too many stand around admiring how shiny and round it is. I intend to prod and poke the bubble a bit, not for the sake of it, but because that's what should be done. The ridiculous should be identified as such.

Also, there won't be comments. I love discussion, and you're welcome to ping me on Twitter or drop me an email or write your own post on your own website in response to anything I write here, but comments just don't do it for me.

So I hope you enjoy, and please bear with me. It will be worth it.