I have not had a sip, taste or sniff of wine in the past week due to recovery from the ear thing. The good news is I am 98% recovered and have some fun stuff to open tomorrow night as the medication ends tonight. Woo hoo!
I guess I need to comment a bit on the latest Wine Advocate. Jay "96-100" Miller has anointed another winery to the stratosphere of his unique palate. So Cayuse, a winery in Washington is the new wonder boy in the world of Dr. Jay Miller. I haven't tasted Cayuse in three to four vintages but what I tasted was very forgettable. I did taste at least three consecutive vintages in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Just big, juicy, somewhat hot, overpriced wines from WA. One with a funky name and a funkier label. The usual suspects are ripping him a new asshole but he is doing exactly what he needs to do to "legitimize" himself, which is anoint wines with high scores that "he discovers." That is how you make a reputation as a wine critic these days. Look at Laube and Kosta-Browne, Parker and 1982 Bordeaux + Latour A Pomerol and Lafleur. But no one has quite done what Jay Miller has done and just go on a 99-100 point bender the likes that have not been seen ever in wine criticism. From what I have heard from my distributor sources though is that Jay Miller does not move markets like Parker does which might be a good thing . . .but who knows? A Jay Miller 90 pt. Castano Solanera does not move like a Robert Parker 90 pt. Castano Solanera.
Well David Schiznizzle also outed the Loire Valley, but did it in a very sensible way, without going nuts and doling out gobs of 96-100 pointers.....thank god! I don't need Jeff Leve starting a thread about the best vintages of Huet, Foreau, Champalou to backfill on because the current vintage is too expensive. Gag me with a spoon! He outed Chidaine, Belliviere, Foreau and did a number on Cazin. I am very happy Francois Cazin is getting the recognition he deserves as he does make the best Romorantin in the world (apologies to Henri Marrionet). The geeks knew and this might get out but you would not have a clue by all the discussion on ERP. People are busting nuts over Alban, SQN, Saxum, Cayuse and crying about their beloved Loring getting thrashed again. But there is an odd silence about the Loire. I guess 91 points ain't what it used to be . . .and we are all the better for it.
I love the wines from Chidaine! BTW, here are some nice photos from my danish friend Tom P. concerning the winery Keller.........
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snakvin.dk/Keller_Komplet_2006.pdf
Have fun,
Martin "BerlinKitchen"
Just big, juicy, somewhat hot, overpriced wine
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You just wrote a tasting note for 90% of the wines of WA.
I no longer get the Advocate, but I do hope that some of the people who are making wines, and not milkshakes, got some good press.
[Sorry, misposted this to a thread below instead of here, where it belongs, so here it goes again...]
ReplyDeleteFunny coincidence. Just yesterday morning I posted a three-part essay on my Spanish blog that sort of lands on the same conclusions you get here. The article is about recent readings from magazines.
The first article I address is Fiona Morrison's assessment, in the Anniversary Edition of Wine & Spirits, of the lasting impact of the 1982 Bordeaux vintage. Morrison stresses the point that Parker was essentially a novice wine writer when he made the judgment he made about that rather overripe and really (as a quarter century has shown) much less than perfect vintage. No real knowledge, no real historical perspective and a boatload of chutzpah was all it took to proclaim 1982 "The Best Bordeaux Vintage EVER!"
Parker's original pronouncement on the '82s has long since become a bit of a joke. And yet, he's attained the influence he's attained and, most importantly, kept it. Which, in terms of his followers, is pretty damn worrisome.
Second article I dealt with appeared in Wine Enthusiast, which I know is hardly worthy of a trucjstop water closet in terms of quality of reading material, but Gerry Dawes said I should check out their "New Classics of Rioja" coverage. Of course, they're "discovering" the same old-same old: Remírez de Ganuza, Roda, Artadi and all those other wonderful examples of pointy impotability and--gasp!--naming the "movement" these wines apparently constitute as "new classic". Enough to make you want to puke. Of course, some funny moments in there, like when the writer of the article says Muga's horrid Aro "reeks of power and precision". Or the fact that the bodega making "El Puntido" is called Viñedos de Páganos (which would translate as "Pay Us Vnyds.")
Anyhoo, third article was the New Yorker's brilliant piece (didn't get the link here, I regret to say, but from Robin Garr's board) on the Rodenstock mess. My emphasis is on what Michael Broadbent's "Vintage Wine" is worth these days as a serious reference book and the many blows Broadbent's credibility has suffered because of this Jefferson- Bottles affair.
There are connections between all three, of course... And they all lead to something closely related to your conclusion about the discipline of "wine criticism" today.
M.
Martin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Keller thing. Very informative (put it through Alta Vista Babel Fish) , , ,
[My comments as well in duplicate as I also responded on the other thread]
ReplyDeleteManuel,
Great comments. I believe this was for the other post on ramblings and musings but I figured out what you were talking about.
It is amazing that Parker's reputation is based on the 1982 Bordeaux's. His influence is Greenspan-like and yet it is based on not much. His followers believe there is no one else and they silence you if you disagree with him or come up with a contrarian point of view. Paging Mr. Squires . . .
New Rioja is gross just like new Coke was gross. Aro reeks that is for sure . . .
Yea the New Yawka piece is great .
Trouble is that the good man at Wine Enthusiast (or was it the "tasting panel"?) used "reeks' as a positive, which is a new one to me... At any rate, that magazine is hilarious. Of course, you have to go to Borders and hide away somewhere (the Philosophy section works; also Literary Criticism) where no one will come looking.
ReplyDeleteOne of the points I make in my article is that Parker not only introduced the "New Wine Guru" mode of calling something "The Greatest Ever". This mode also includes the summary dismissal of everything else that came before because, of course, what else rocks like "Modernity"?
Take, for example, the following especially Epsilon-minusesque passage from the WE article:
"At the end of the day it is balance that distinguishes the new classics from the average and the subpar. It's not enough for a new wine to replace Rioja's traditional lighter hues and tart, dilute flavors dark colors, high alcohol and extract because that can be achieved through extended maceration or fiddling with temperatures during fermentation".
Wonder if this ninny would call '47 Bosconia, '45 Riscal, '34 Castillo de Ygay, '62 Viña Real, '70 Imperial, '64 Monte Real, '52 Albina, '73 La Rioja Alta "Centenario" or '89 Prado Enea "tart and dilute"? I also wonder how that whole "balance" thing he blabs about is achieved by these wines? Apart from any number of spoofulistic techniques, what do they do? Since the wines are overripe and jet black, is "balance" achieved by adding a otn of new French oak at the other end of the scale?
But I digress... The point is that there is always already a dismissal coming from every latter-day self-styled "wine critic". One should make every effort to embarrass these cretins into some level of sanity and Bigger-picture sort of thought. That is, if they turn out ot be capable of thought in the end.
M.
The upside to Dr Miller's approach is that he has (in the minds of many, I think) devalued his ratings by doling-out oodles of top scores. Granted, I'm a bit of a contrarian.
ReplyDeleteI think Schildknecht has take a very balanced and sensible approach to his scoring IMO... he's nearly out-of-place in contrast to the relish that Miller and Parker have for bombastic scoring.
Lyle, as a side note, have you ever tried Briseau's La Gaudriole?
Looks like you just lost your credibilty (as you say Jay miller lost his)with the generalization that Cayuse wines are "Just big, juicy, somewhat hot, forgettable, overpriced wine." You couldn't be further from the truth...
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