Okay, I will betray my ignorance and say the first reaction I had was "Who is Sara Ahmed?"
Next, I clicked on the link. Was not particularly charmed by the plea of "Hire Me" on the header of the page, but hey, what the heck. Commercial venture, and we all gotta live, right?
Next, I read the article. Good writing and some nice descriptions...but even as a Wine 1%er it's not particularly useful for me. Mildly interesting, but not useful.
I mean, it's nice to know what that 1863 tasted like to Sara, but since I'm never going to have it, it's not really material to me.
She's a pretty good writer. I would more appreciate her writing about wines that are available and attainable, and not just orgasming over wines that aren't. Then again, I would suspect I am not her target market.
(And yes, I've had some of the mid-1800 Madeiras, and yes they've been interesting and sometimes truly exceptional, but I'd never write them up as My Top Five Wines of the Year. Seems like bragging. Who would care? Meanwhile I intend to open and enjoy my standard bottle of Broadbent 5yo Reserve Madeira, a house favorite at about $25 a bottle---it's not rarefied, exceptionally old, pre-phylloxera, hideously expensive, or hard to find (although I wish it were distributed better than it is). What it is is immensely satisfying to me and my wife (she loves the stuff and it was ostensibly one of her Christmas presents). We love the Tinta Negra Mole that constitutes the majority of the flavor profile; we realize it's more of a "country" profile rather than a collector's profile madeira. But that's fine with us, as it just tastes good.)
