I do REALLY prefer and enjoy the intensity of the latour and st-emilion and etc, but it's just not an everyday casual drinking thing. My thing about the gloria wasn't love because they were high structure and linear — it was love because it still had some structure and texture vs the actual FLAVOR and taste.

You drink in two registers, not on one axis: occasion wines, where intensity is actively prized — the structured Left-Bank 'holy shit' kind — and everyday wines, judged on flavor that still keeps a line of structure and texture underneath. A wine is judged against its register, never against a single preference scale.

I liked the left banks I had that were Cab dominant but the right banks that were Merlot dominant felt unstructured and too blended.

The signal that separates the loves from the mehs is a held line — structure with proportion — versus plush shapelessness. It is NOT grape purity, NOT intensity, NOT price tier. Honest limit: at WSET ordinal granularity the loved Les Forts (#1) and the meh Laroque (#13) draw nearly identical spines; the separating signal lives in style (plush-vs-line, single-variety clarity), not in the six ordinals. Second limit from the Brunello (#16): a held line without distinct notes lands liked, not loved — the line separates likes from mehs, but the loves also need something that pops.

caveat — At WSET granularity loved #1 and meh #13 are near-identical (m+/m+/dry/med/long) — the separator is style, not the ordinals. Laroque #13 is limestone-fresh and high-acid yet still meh, so plushness alone does not fully explain the Right-Bank mehs.

I liked the left banks I had that were Cab dominant.

The early reading that single-variety clarity / Cabernet-dominance drives the loves is weakened: percent-Cabernet does not predict the verdict. The 50%-Cab Glorias (the most blend-forward Left Banks owned) were loved with repurchase intent, while Grand-Puy-Lacoste (79% Cab, the most Cab-pure bottle drunk) was merely good with no repurchase intent.

caveat — Confounded with register and with plush-vs-line. Once Gloria (50% Cab, loved) and Grand-Puy-Lacoste (79% Cab, good-not-loved) are compared, percent-Cabernet tracks neither the loves nor the mehs.

The chablis and the other white I really liked but mostly because for white wine I always default to pinot gris or pinot grigio and they were way dryer.

The structure preference translates to whites as dryness plus an acid line: dry, mineral, high-acid whites over off-dry or neutral ones. His Pinot Gris / Pinot Grigio default is now the baseline to beat.

caveat — Both whites were 'really liked', not loved. Unclear whether the ceiling is the wines or that whites simply matter less to him overall (his own open question).

It was completely fine, nothing amazing. It made me think 'maybe I need to examine more spanish sub regions or things closer to a left bank.'

Soft, traditional, oak-rounded Rioja fails the occasion register and only shrugs in the everyday register — it is not bland or offensive (flavors were distinct, it drank easily), just no spark. The Spain lane should aim at structured, Left-Bank-adjacent styles rather than traditional Gran Reserva.

caveat — Directionally right but softened: NOT bland or shapeless — flavors were distinct and it drank easily. n=1 (Manzanos Gran Reserva 2015).

I didn't have any blandness issues and because of the price I was very impressed.

Within the everyday register, price enters the verdict: a $45–50 bottle that holds its line impresses more than its absolute quality alone would. Occasion bottles are not judged on value.

caveat — A single strong instance (the two Glorias, given one joint verdict). Value amplifies only within the everyday register — it is not a factor for occasion bottles.