A question of points

William Tish (known as Tish), at www.wineforall.com, made a comment on one of my recent posts. The post was about my experience at Total Wine and Tish had a question about what I found more influential, cards that list the number of points that the wine received or the personal notes that were written by the staff.

I started replying to the thread and before I knew it I had a whole blog post written. So instead of just posting it as a comment I thought I would post is as an article and let others see it and respond as they see fit.

Tish’s comment was:

Are you for real about the points? Why do numbers impress you? And if one rating comes from WS and another from RP and another from IWC, doesn't that make you wonder what they ratings they did NOT post were? I have been to Total Wines in several states, and have always been WAY more impressed with the hand-written shelf talkers that consciously avoid ratings.

And now the response:

Hey Tish, thanks for the comment!

I think that's because you have a strong bias against ratings to begin with. I agree that it made me think about what the other publications gave the wines that had ratings tags, or why there weren't ratings on every wine. But they were names I trusted. Perhaps it is the special position I have in the industry, but if Michael Schachner at WE rates a wine or Josh Raynolds from the IWC I have a higher chance of buying that wine because I have tasted wines they have rated and I have agreed with their ratings (for the most part).

And do not get confused between trusting and being impressed. I am not impressed about which wines are rated what, it is simply a matter of trust. I trust wines that have the names of WS, WE, W&S, IWC, WA associated with them. And why shouldn’t I? That is why these publications exist! However, I trust my own taste buds MUCH more!

Which brings me to the point about the staff at the store. I don't know them, and I do know that the main goal of the storeowner and staff is to sell wine. Sure they have the incentive to recommend a good wine so that I come back for another recommendation, but because I have not tasted with them I do not know if I should trust their recommendation.

It would be much different if I visited Total Wine regularly and got to know the staff and taste with them during their free in-store tastings, but since it was a one time visit (and maybe again in the future if I get back there) I trust names I know.

At the end of the day, I did not buy a single wine that I knew was highly rated unless I had already tasted it. I purchased wines from producers I had little experience with or regions that I had not tasted as thoroughly as I had others. I completely ignored the signs left by the staff and made my own choices on whatever criteria my brain came up with that day. I might have been buying with a few articles that I had read in mind, or perhaps a wine by the glass I had at a wine bar that someone had recommended that I found enjoyable. But I still found it comforting to know that there were wines that were rated there.

Recommendations from all sources

When it comes down to it, the best recommendation comes from the person next to you when you are in the wine shop. That is how I came to purchase a bottle of Valduero Crianza 2003 from Ribera del Duero in Spain.

I went into my local wine shop and asked for them to show me a good bottle of wine for a decent price. The guy in the shop, In Vino Veritas handed me this wine and it had a tag on it that noted that the Wine Advocate had rated this wine 92. The sales person really seemed to think this wine was a good one and so I took it. There was little else to recommend the wine over any of the others.

When I got home I went to check out the wine on the other major reviewing sites and I could not find it. I went to the International Wine Cellar, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Wine & Spirits and I could not find this wine listed. Surely, if one of them had rated the wine as highly as a 92, it must be at least listed in the other publications, right?

Nope. I even took a look at Valduero website and the most recent wine listed is the 1999 Crianza. To be fair, I did find some other vintages of this wine listed and rated, but not with any consistency. However, this leads to the question of was the wine tasted and just not good enough to be rated? Is it possible that one reviewer rated a wine in the 90’s and another did not think it worth even a lowly 85 (usually the lowest a wine can be rated while still having its rating published).

It really shocks me how hard it is to find information about this wine. And this is not the first wine I have tried to look up with such poor results. It seems that even the simplest of ideas, that the winery’s website should be up-to-date with the most recent vintages of the wines (an activity that would at most take a half hour once a year), are simply too much for some of these businesses. With the blogosphere growing at such a rapid pace, and wine blogging becoming a part of this movement, company websites have become an important resource for those that cannot travel around the world to discuss the product with the business/winery.

I popped open the bottled and drank to the health of the clerk. It was an ok wine, I think perhaps a little past its prime. It definitely did not age gracefully. Perhaps when the wine was young, it could have been interesting, but at the moment I tasted it there was little left. The main component was a bit of vanilla and prunes. There was some fruit up front, but I found it to be choked off by new oak flavors.

When all was said and done, I can only blame the staff member at the wine store for the recommendation. Yes there was a 92-point recommendation from the Wine Advocate, but it turned out I didn’t like the wine all that much. There could have been other factors why this wine ended up in my hands. It is possible they had not tasted the wine, or had not tasted it lately. It’s possible that it was a wine they wanted to unload and I was the sap that walked through the door.

The moral of the story? Find a retailer you trust and visit them often. Let them get to know you and your tastes. The stronger the relationship, the better wines that they will steer you towards.

And wineries, please update your websites. It is the simplest thing and will help you greatly in your goal of promoting your wines.

Tasting 1400 bottles of wine

That’s how many bottles I will be surrounded by this week. No, I did not buy them (as if I have that much money). These are the wines that we have collected for a comprehensive review of Chile by Josh Raynolds, wine critic for the International Wine Cellar.

This is going to be one hell of a tasting. The first day is going to be spent simply taking inventory of the wines that are here, and putting them in order for Josh to taste. Each wine taster is different, and each has their own particular style of tasting wines. For instance, Jay Miller, critic for Robert Parker’s The Wine Adocate, likes to taste each individual wine for a single winery before moving on to the next winery. Josh likes to taste by varietal order and then by price, which means we will be starting with sparkling wines on Tuesday, through all the whites and onto the reds.

It’s the “by price” that always gets me. In order to organize a tasting where the critic tastes by price, we put a number on each bottle of wine. After the numbers are on the bottles, we put them in number order. Knowing which sticker goes onto each bottle requires a lot of research on each wine long before the bottles show up. We have a VERY long spreadsheet, which lists each wine, their brand name, their vintage, their varietal composition, the appellation each wine comes from, and the price of each wine. If you want to learn appellations and brand names, there is no better way than by putting this list together.

Some people have asked me how long do I think this tasting will take. We have scheduled four days of tasting. I mean full days, starting at about 7:00 AM and finishing between 5:00 – 6:00 PM. Josh usually averages about 180 wines a day, Jay did closer to 200. We prepare Carrs Crackers, water, and regular breaks for the tasters, allowing them to go at their own pace.

Can these tasters really taste anything after the 137th wine? Well, the last time we held this review for a critic I tasted with them. As an amateur taster, I was still able to able to distinguish defining characteristics in different wines through my 80th wine. After about that I had to re-energize my taste buds by walking away for a while, eating something, drinking some water. For a professional, such as these critics, I really have no reservations about putting as many wines in front of them as they wish. Each critic takes the same focus of attention for each wine, be it the first one or the 151st one.

There is another thing I like about these tastings. Besides allowing me to continue my wine education by having the opportunity to taste more wines, there is a lot of wine left over. Since it is only one person tasting, there are only a few ounces missing from each wine. That leaves a lot of wine remaining that needs to find a happy home.

Superbowl party anyone?