Chateau Petrogasm: Visual Wine Tasting Notes

Over the weekend we revisited a site we discovered in the summer. Based on the classic premise of a picture being worth a thousand words – yes, we know it’s a cliché, but it’s still valid – Chateau Petrogasm uses images to convey both the experience of drinking and the impression of a wine. Some are concrete – crème brule for a Montrachet or a moldy strawberry for an Eschzeaux. After all, if a wine smells overbearingly like honeydew, then we must trust that honeydew will stain one’s imagination and thus the image.

Some stretch the imagination – ocean waves crashing against the coast for a Taittinger Champagne or a sultry brunette for the Sicilian 2005 Tenuta di Trinoro (yes, the contrast between the image from the ’40s and ’60s created some interesting debate).

Dr Debs, who we discovered runs an intriguing blog focusing on wines under $20 (that would be $20 in the States unfortunately), notes “visiting Chateau Petrogasm has become my preferred morning brain exercise. It beats Sudoku, no question. It gets the old synapses firing better than caffeine. And it’s the only wine review site that can put forward a reasonable claim that philosophers from Plato to Wittgenstein (were they still living) would vote for it in the American Wine Blog Awards.”

While we were both originally equally entranced, some of the later entries seem to be getting “out there” simply for the sake of being “out there.” Still, it’s a fun cruise around – especially on a snowy, winter afternoon like we had today. Be sure to check through the archives for some of the images that initially captured our attention.