Archive for the ‘Rating Wine’ Category
I rarely take room on this blog to correct wine writers or to respond to them. But let's file this under, "I can't resist". In a recent article on the Huffington Post, importer, distributor and writer David Duman attempted to refute those who take time to defend the 100 point rating system. Among the things he focused upon was what he called the "It's Not Objective Fallacy". Duman claims that those defenders of the 100 point system who assert that…
I can’t recall an example within the wine industry where one product category was largely defined by its proponents’ denigration of competing products. Marketing-by-denigration isn’t actually common in any product category with the prominent exception of politics where candidates for office routinely denigrate their opposition in order to prop up themselves and their own candidacy. Proponents of the Natural Wine movement, however, seem to be the anomaly in the wine business: in order to gain attention for the wines, gain…
I don't like the idea of taking issue with Jamie Goode. He's smarter than me. He's a better writer than me. And he's better looking than me. But on this issue of "Authentic Wine", the topic of his latest book, Jamie gets it wrong. In fact, it's the very premise of his and Sam Harrop's "Authentic Wine: Toward Natural and Sustainable Winemaking" that can't be justified. In their introduction they write: "Wine is now at a metaphorical fork in the…
Sitting back and watching the mirth, outrage, smugness and concern issued by other watchers of the most current turn of events at Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, I'm reminded just how important, powerful and relevant the critics are to the Wine Trade. I'm further struck by how these events and the reaction to them shine a light on the very complex relationship that has developed between Mr. Parker and others in the world of wine. By most accounts and from what…
It's one thing to publish a Top 10 or Top 100 list of your favorite individual wines of the year. My hat is off to those who can determine such detailed conclusions. It's another thing to list one's Top 10 Wine Types of the year. This is merely a matter of determining what category of wines most pleased during the year. I prefer this later approach as it relieves me from having to mention individual wines and it's a far…
