May 19, 2025 (Napa, CA) – Lisa Perrotti-Brown is excited to announce the launch of her new website, TheWinePalate.com. The sleek, modern site features a proprietary Wine Palate Matcher tool—a user-friendly filtering system allowing users to precisely dial in their preferred wine preferences to find matches within a database of thousands of reviews. Other membership features include access to:
- The database of Winery Stories, offering vinous tales from around the world and reviews of the wines behind the stories.
- The database of Vintage Reports from Bordeaux and Napa Valley, dating back to 1982 up to the latest vintage releases, and linked to reviews of wines from those years.
- The database of thousands of unbiased, expertly judged wine reviews from throughout the wine world, with hundreds of new reviews added every month.
- Access to the Editorial and Educational platform.
- New reviews and articles are published weekly.
“The Wine Palate Matcher is a game-changer for wine lovers,” said Lisa Perrotti-Brown. “Modern consumers are accustomed to using accurate filters to find exactly what they want to buy on sites like Amazon and Airbnb. But wine buying, especially for novices, is more like guesswork, resulting in costly mistakes and frustration. Scores alone are increasingly irrelevant. It’s enough to make potential new younger consumers walk away from the category.”
The Wine Palate Matcher filtering system depends on wine experts mapping each wine’s aromatic and taste profile. Parameters include the usual basics: wine color, type, grape variety, dryness, and region. Then the wine’s unique taste characteristics are further mapped using a range of possibilities within categories such as faults, fruit expression, major fruit type, other aromas (up to three), body, acidity, oak, tannin level, texture type, and state of maturity. Additionally, each review offers up to four types of food pairings. And with every review, users are offered similar palate matches, giving them a range of choices to explore—an easy way of discovering new wines like those already loved.
The Wine Palate’s regional focuses are currently Napa Valley, Sonoma, California Central Coast, and the rest of the USA, as well as Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy, and Burgundy. Perrotti-Brown mainly covers the USA, Bordeaux, and Champagne, while Vanessa Conlin MW will primarily cover Italy and Burgundy. Acclaimed writer and author of Loam Baby, R. H. Drexel, is also on board to provide beautifully penned winery stories and winemaker profiles.
“We are looking to take on more experts to cover the wine world extensively,” said Perrotti-Brown. “We intend to grow slowly and organically, finding formally educated experts with solid technical knowledge and compelling writing skills.”
As for her position at The Wine Independent, Perrotti-Brown commented, “I have resigned as a shareholder from that business and will no longer provide coverage for them. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
The Wine Palate launches on May 19, 2025, featuring hundreds of new May 2025 releases from around the world that can be discovered using the Wine Palate Matcher.
“This week, we’re featuring stories on Continuum Estate and Mayacamas Vineyards in Napa Valley, including reviews of their new releases,” said Perrotti-Brown. “There’s also an editorial piece on The Quixote Pursuit of Balance. And we have my 2024 Bordeaux Primeurs report with over 500 reviews, following my recent trip to the region. Next week, we will publish hundreds of reviews from the Bordeaux 2022 vintage and the story of Bergman Estate—a relative newcomer to Napa Valley. In the pipeline for the forthcoming weeks, we’ll feature stories about Ovid, Bonneau du Martray, Masseto, Bella Oaks, Kinsman Eades, and Littorai, to name a few. Throughout this month, we will also be adding hundreds of new releases from California and further afield, following recent tastings with Napa Valley Vintners, consultant Philippe Melka, and many more. All of this new content will be exclusive to The Wine Palate.”
To celebrate the launch, The Wine Palate is offering a special promotion. Those who purchase a subscription before June 8, 2025, can become a Friend of The Wine Palate—a privileged level of Personal Membership.
- Personal Friend Memberships receive a 10% discount on annual subscriptions for as long as they are continuous subscribers. (Regular price is $99/year)
- All new members of The Wine Palate receive a 24-hour free trial, meaning they can explore The Wine Palate for 24 hours before the membership fee is charged.
For more information, visit www.TheWinePalate.com or follow us on Instagram.
About The Wine Palate
The Wine Palate offers unbiased, expertly judged wine reviews. A proprietary Wine Palate Matcher lets subscribers quickly find wines in our extensive database that accurately match their palate preferences. We publish new reviews, winery stories, vintage reports, and editorials weekly. Our aim is to inspire new wine discoveries, inform wine experiences, and ensure every wine we help you find is a bottle you will love. The only wine palate that matters is yours.
About Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
Lisa Perrotti-Brown has been in the wine industry for over 25 years, living and working in London, Tokyo, Singapore, and now Napa, California.
In 2008, she became a Master of Wine and received the Madame Bollinger Medal for excellence in wine tasting. That same year, she began working for Robert M. Parker, Jr. at The Wine Advocate.
In 2013, she became editor-in-chief for Robert Parker Wine Advocate and RobertParker.com and was the publication’s critic for Bordeaux, Napa Valley, and Sonoma County wines.
Lisa’s first book, Taste Like a Wine Critic: A Guide to Understanding Wine Quality, was published in 2015. In 2021, she left Robert Parker Wine Advocate to become co-founder of The Wine Independent.
In 2025, she founded The Wine Palate, a new kind of wine reviews website designed to help consumers easily find the styles of wines they want, while elevating the experience of enjoying wine.
About Vanessa Conlin MW
Vanessa Conlin is a Master of Wine residing in Napa Valley.
She began her wine career in New York City as a wine buyer for two retailers and the wine director for a Manhattan wine bar. Drawn to the vineyards, she relocated to Napa Valley in 2010, where she held leadership roles as Director of Sales and Marketing for prestigious wineries, including Arietta Wines and Dana Estates. Vanessa later transitioned into the online space as Chief Wine Officer at Wine Access, where she remained for six years. Following that, she served as the global head of wine retail for Sotheby’s, where she continues to be a consultant.
An avid supporter of philanthropy, Vanessa serves on the Board of Jameson Humane, a local non-profit, and has chaired its annual charity wine auction twelve times. In 2024, she hosted Auction Napa Valley, supporting youth mental health initiatives in the region, and in 2025, she served as Auction Chair and Auctioneer for From Ashes to Hope, a charity event that raised funds for children and families impacted by California wildfires.
Prior to her passion for wine, Vanessa enjoyed a career as a professional opera singer, performing internationally and on Broadway. She holds a Master’s Degree in Music.
About R.H. Drexel
R.H. Drexel is the pen name for a wine business insider who has worked in nearly every sector of the wine industry for the last 30 years. In 2012, Drexel published the first issue of Loam Baby, her wine culture zine, which garnered favorable reviews from Los Angeles Times, Punch Magazine, Imbibe, Wine & Spirits, Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, among others, for its irreverent cartoons, in-depth articles, and anachronistic approach to wine journalism. Drexel continues to publish Loam Baby and is also a freelance writer.
