Joel Wilcox

Joel is the editor of and primary contributor to Writer’s Blanc.   He sees wine in everything.  (It’s not an obsession, it’s simply a lifestyle.)  Having worked in the Ontario wine industry since 2000, he’s been able to digest more than his fair share of practical and technical wine knowledge.  He holds an M.A. in English Literature from McMaster University, and is a Certified Sommelier through the International Sommelier Guild.  Joel currently lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake and loves speaking in third-person.

Robert Parker

Rob is a recovering Graduate Student grappling with a tragic case of pretension deficit disorder.  What he lacks in technical elegance, he makes up for with solipsism, obscurantism and inclusion of narrative where it ought not to be. He holds an M.A. in English and Film Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University. He works too much and currently splits his time between Toronto and Waterloo. He’s fairly sure that talking in the third person isn’t conclusive evidence of mental illness, but it still took the police a few hours to talk him down when he realized he was doing it.

Wine Ideologies

The authors have discussed this topic at length, and while they originally wished to present their sentiments collectively, they nearly got into a fistfight over their differing opinions.  A couple of plates and potted plants were thrown about the room; wall-dents and chipped paint prove their determination.  In their own words:

Joel: Wine has to be an expression of place: climate, soil, even the people who drink it.  It’s a totally romanticized notion, but I feel it’s of historic importance.  I find a wine lacking if it can’t honestly portray that larger concept of terroir.  Do that, and to me the wine succeeds.  (And to be clear… I’m not mining for a mineral-taste, but it might help.)

Rob: Given my current ignorance of more institutionalized wine tasting practices, I insist on leaving the question open.  My comments may be harder to interpret, or appear to be the ranting of an uncouth bumpkin, but I prefer it that way.  In utilizing a more gut-level, instinctive approach, I hope to offer a more stylized candor not often found in wine criticism. (This is not to say that I have not begun the swift process of bricolage and assimilation affectionately (if ominously) referred to as a “crash course” in wine criticism).