La Vino Dolce is a website dedicated to exploring the wonderful world of sweet wines. We’re not talking about White Zinfandel or Boone’s Farm, here. We’re talking about some of the finest, most complex wines ever made; true “dessert” wines.
This venture is the creation of Troy A. Stark, an attorney located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Troy has always had a passion for wine and is primarily self-taught. A voracious reader of wine books, websites and magazines, Troy also works as a part-time retail wine consultant for one of Minnesota’s best wine shops, Pairings Food & Wine Market. Troy’s “day job” is working as the owner of Stark Legal Consulting, a full-service law and business-consulting firm.
A note about samples…
I do accept samples, but please note the following:
- First and foremost, I will only review SWEET WINES. This means wines that are traditionally labelled “dessert” wines; Ports, Sherries, Icewines, Late harvest wines, Botrytis-affected wines and the like. I realize these types of wine are expensive to produce, so I will accept any size sample for review.
- Blush wines, sweet sparkling wines and other types of wine with only a small amount of residual sugar are less likely to be reviewed, but it is not out of the question. If you feel strongly about your wine, let me know why and I may conduct a review.
- I live in Minnesota, which is prone to extreme weather in both Summer and Winter. Please contact me before shipping so I can be on the lookout for your sample.
- I will be completely honest in my reviews. If I do not like a wine, I may say so explicitly. If I believe the bottle is flawed in some way, I will let you know and will not publish a review. If it is simply a matter of me not liking the wine, that’s a different story. If I find a wine is not flawed, but is particularly offensive to my taste, I may not publish a review to avoid causing overt harm to your brand. I cannot, however, completely eliminate the risk you will take in sending me a sample. Choose carefully, but know that with risk, comes reward.
- Please label your samples with a media contact (e-mail and phone number preferably) and also include the production volume and MSRP of the wine. If you have a particular webpage at which you would like the review to point, please include that as well. If you’re willing to give me free wine, the least I can do is give you a free link.
- My reviews typically appear in the form of bullet-pointed tasting notes (what can I say, I like bullet-points). I typically do not assign scores to wines, but will generally end my reviews with a Conclusion directing my readers to either buy your wine or not.
Interested? Send me an Email for shipping information!
