about Jim van Bergen – Uncorked

JvB UnCorked is an honest, hopefully fun, and from-the-heart perspective on wine that serves the entire wine community- everyone from the novices, every day wine drinkers, oenophiles and somms to the growers, makers, distributors and shops. I taste wines I buy as well as wines I am sent to review- some from friends wanting an opinion, some from winemakers and marketing groups.

What I promise to deliver is honesty, and that’s why I haven’t monetized my site with advertisers or pay-to-read wine reviews. Those sites are beholden to the incoming dollars. This site is driven by passion for finding wines we will enjoy, want to share, and maybe, hopefully, even love to taste.

If you wonder why it’s rare to see a terrible, scathing review here, it’s NOT because I haven’t tasted something I hate. Far from that, there are two simple reasons: a) I try to choose wines that offer the consumer great value at whatever price point, and b) regardless of whether I personally like a wine, if I can’t suggest who WOULD like it, then I prefer not to publish a terrible review- those products will flicker out without my help. It serves no one to publish purely negative reviews, as we’ve all seen in decades of reviews over our lifetimes. I hope you appreciate my integrity and honesty, and that you will be introduced to some great wines from this site. If you’re reading this, It’s a passion we share and something we already have in common.

Welcome to JvB -Uncorked, a wine blog.

I didn’t set out to write a wine blog; no, I succumbed to peer pressure in the digital age.  For years I was the wine guy people would turn to in our circle of working professionals (like the accountant, the lawyer, the headhunter) for advice. I’m a wine lover, for certain, but if you had to put a title on it, I’m more the casual/approachable sommelier or wine director– constantly asked for my opinions and providing my suggestions for wines for meals, evenings, parties, pairings, and the like unless people are in my home, in which case it might become a tasting party! I adore wine. I enjoy the flavors, the smells, the color, and above all, pairings- and I love the social aspect of sharing delicious flavors with friends and family, when I’m not touring or working a show of some form.

To know a little more about me, I started as an admitted classic French wine snob. I was taught about Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Loire Valley wines by a Frenchman when I was too young to know what it really meant. Being too young to be rude (a trait I didn’t learn until later in life), I listened and nodded, taking it in. Learning French wines was like learning Latin or Greek in school,  when later in life that knowledge re-kindled a spark while buying wine for some family event years ago. Evidently, I knew more about wine than I thought I knew- most important, I knew what I liked and what I wanted. And what I served, people noticed, appreciated and followed.

Since then I’ve learned a great deal about wines from California, Oregon, Italy, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Spain- you name it. And the more I learn, the more I want to know and share with others who are passionate about the vine. With choosing wine, all that matters is that you know what you like, and the next step is being willing to taste and try new things- whether your frame of reference is wide or narrow. Wines are evolving, living chemical mixtures, and ultimately they are short-lived delicacies that we can’t hold on to expecting they will keep their beauty. They change over time and should eventually be consumed, hopefully at the right age, since they risk going bad. Being exposed to temperature extremes, sun, too much moisture, even a solid blow- can ruin the wine’s day, and the taster’s in return.

-Jim van Bergen (aka JvB) is a husband, father, son & brother based in NYC. Born into a family of bellmakers, in his professional life he earns a living as a technical guru in live entertainment (production manager, sound designer, broadcast mixer, recording engineer, etc) and as such he’s been required along the way to serve as author, lecturer, mentor, and industry voice from time to time. His designs have been heard on five continents and his broadcast mixes by millions of people around the world…

But none of that really matters in this forum.

Uncorked, JvB is an established oenophile with a small cult following.