Archive for the ‘Rating Wine’ Category
Expectations! They can "do in" a wine or elevate it to heights we never expected. But sometimes our expectations for a wine are met so perfectly that there can be no lamenting, no elation…just acknowledgment of what we expected. Personally, I prefer to be elated or disappointed by a wine. This was driven home this past weekend as I broke open a couple bottles of wine: 1996 Rochioli Reserve Sauvignon Blanc (Russian River Valley)1996 Mondavi To-Kalon I Block Fume Blanc…
I sat back in my chair. Somewhat stunned. I had just read what amounted to a "hit piece" on a few wineries by a wine critic. The gist of the article was, "these guys just don’t cut the mustard". Being the sensitive type I had to wonder what the point is of raking these wineries over the coals. It’s a question that could only be answered if I knew the inner workings of the wine critic’s mind. Who knew how…
Oh how I’d like to see more of THIS! Charles Olken is the longtime publisher and primary reviewer for the Connoisseur’s Guide To California Wine, a well-respected newsletter that is as reliable as any wine reviewing organ in the business. Olken also writes a newspaper column and his latest takes into account a variety of different Pinot Noirs produced from a single vineyard in Monterey’s Santa Lucia Highlands appellation: Rosella’s Vineyard. It turns out that after tasting more than 100…
Jason Walsh is a UK writer who, according to his blog "Design of the Nation", takes on issues of design, culture, politics and technology. I think that just about covers everything. Included in this bag of issues Mr. Walsh covers is, apparently, wine. In a post today, Walsh offers an interesting notion: That including varietal information on a wine label (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, etc) as most of the New World wines do, equates to dumbing down wine and allows consumers…
Can you spare 10 characters in your reviews of wine? That’s really all it would take, a measly 10 spaces in a wine review to add the alcohol level of the wine under consideration. And by adding this bit of information the consumer would be served mightily. I started thinking about this need for stating alcohol content in reviews upon reading Robert Parker’s reviews of Paul Hobbs wines on MSNBC.com. For example:"2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 93 points. A dark…
