Bucket Lists are a bit like Marmite, love ’em or hate ’em, nothing in between! Until recently I’ve been in the “hate ’em” group for full blown Bucket Lists, though I freely admit to having had wish-lists for travel, mountaineering and wine tasting. They served their primary purpose of helping me to plan and schedule travels to USA, China, Nepal, and lots of European cities, as well as summiting quite a few peaks in the Alps and Himalaya. I also managed to become a member of The Wine Century Club having sipped my way to having tasted 100+ different wine grapes.
So, browsing the shelves of our local Waterstones I spotted this book and thought “hmm, that could be useful if it combines wine tasting with wine travel”!

Needless to say I bought it, and here we are a few days later as my brain goes into overdrive about cost and location for #1 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, #2 Chateau Haut-Bailly, #3 Chateau Margaux (god help me!) ……… #5 Chateau d’Yquem …… strike, already done that one, ….. #7 Le Chambertin …. anyway you get the picture?
Here’s what Margaret Rand says in her opening remarks to her book:
“These are not the most iconic wines in the world, nor the 101 highest-scoring wines in the world, though many of them are iconic and many are high scoring. They are the wines that have given me the greatest pleasure. If there is a thread running through these choices it is one of balance, elegance, poise and precision.”
I like that: BALANCE, ELEGANCE, POISE, PRECISION and I will try hard to use it as a yardstick as I taste my way around them.

101 Wines Bucket List wine tasting standards

And now for some action, I have decided to conduct my wine tasting of these 101 Wines as much in-situ with the producer as possible so the exercise becomes linked with our wine travels, especially around Europe. Where impossible I will just use my Wine Searcher app to find the best value source to purchase it. Also I will not be tasting them in the strict #1 to #101 sequence either, in fact I may not even make it or try to make it to the finish line, but I will give it a bloody good go!
To kick off we will soon be spending some time in France, particularly in Chablis and Alsace, so ……… opportunity knocks for the following 4 wines:

101 Wines Bucket List, Chablis and Alsace

My “101 Wines Bucket List” combines wine travel with wine tasting in a very specific way, and being able to share them all with family and hopefully tasting many of them with the wine producer makes for a great mindful travel experience. Maybe you’ll join us online as we taste our way through the 101 and blog about them too?

Categories: Reviews, Tips, Visits, Wine

Tags: Alsace wine, Chablis, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, wine lovers, Wine Travel, winetasting