Brian Wilson and the Hedonic Scale

My friend Bryan Wilson, head wine guy at Foris Winery in southern Oregon and renaissance man all around, once told me about something called the hedonic scale. It is a system used to measure the amount of physical and emotional pleasure the consumption of certain wines delivers to the imbiber. Those of you who have ever experienced a wine that inexplicably gives you butterflies in your stomach or brings tears to your eyes can relate to the concept. So anyhew, thinking about the scale got me headed down the long, long, long path of the wines of my past. A couple came quite vividly to mind that would rank right off the charts of my own hedonic scale that, for reference sake, lets just say ranks from 1-14. Here, in no particular order, are two of the most hodonistically pleasurable wines to have ever graced my palate - From my favorite Italian producer to date and by far one of the sexiest men alive, Giorgio Rivetti that is, a 1998 La Spinetta Barbaresco that I drank for my birthday with a very good friend of mine that I will give a scoring of 24 to, and an 01' Gaja Barbaresco that I tasted at around 11a.m. on a Tuesday morning not so long ago that ranks effortlessly at about a 23. This is not to say that I don't get some amount of pleasure from all of the wines I drink just that once in a while one comes along that takes my breath away.