W L
THE CURIOUS QUAFFER
DEMOCRACY
Everywhere we look these days we find experts , critics , retailers and the producers of wines , from around the world , extolling the virtues of this wine , or of that wine ; of this bottle , or of that bottle .
Perhaps more importantly is the fact that , these days , we invariably find that a score is given to not only a particular wine , but to a particular wine from a particular vintage . Indeed , the popularity of the 100-point scoring system , that was first introduced and developed by the infamous Robert Parker Jnr of the Wine Advocate ( and now adopted by many others ) has , in particular , had as huge influence on the way in which wine is marketed and sold around the world . This is so much so that , in the wine industry , it is said : “ If a wine scores less than 90 points , you can ’ t sell it ; if it scores more than 90 points , you can ’ t find it on the shelves ”.
There are many , however , who question the value of the 100-point scoring system because most wines always seem to fall within a narrow band between 85 and 100 points . In addition , this scoring system starts at 50 anyway , not at zero , and is therefore in reality only a 50-point scoring system to start with . The other most common scoring system around is the 20-point one ; one which originates back to the late 1950 ’ s . Those of you who follow the world of fine wine will know that a number of critics use this scoring system too ( Jancis Robinson being , perhaps , one of the best well known ). In some ways this is not that much different from a system that has most wines in a 15 point bracket ( i . e . 100-point system where most wines fall in the 85 – 100 bracket ).
The world of wine has improved markedly over the last several decades . Wine enthusiasm grows by the year . We find more quality wines produced , year on year , from all four corners of the globe . New wine regions are emerging onto the world stage . More and more people now seem to appreciate , and purchase , wine than ever before and for many the views and scores of an expert , or a critic , are crucial when it comes to the purchase of wine .
But , despite all the information produced by , and the scores given by , the ever increasing number of wine experts and critics out there - what role does personal preference play when it comes to the purchase and enjoyment of wine ? Sure , the experts and critics point of view ( and their scores for a wine ) are relevant and important – but what about us , the wine consumer ; what we like ; what we don ’ t like ; what we want
to drink , no matter what somebody else thinks about the wine , or whatever score they give it ?
Whilst most experts or critics feel that their job is to act merely as a guide when it comes to wine and the wine world , others take the view that their views , particularly when it comes to the scores that they give a particular wine , are responsible for far too much in the way of influence , not only in the way wines are sold and marketed , but also in the way wines are actually produced these days .
At the end of the day everything is subjective when it comes to wine . This applies across the board . When an expert or critic gives a wine a score , they are expressing their own personal view of the wine . When we taste a wine , as the consumer , we also ( in deciding what we like , what we dislike and even perhaps what score we would give to a particular wine ) are also expressing our own personal view of what we are drinking . All of our palettes are different . Our individual palette can be markedly different from the palette of an expert or critic that may , for example , have given a particular wine a sub 90 score , or perhaps even a 100-point score . It should also be remembered that wine is , by its very nature , something of a chameleon – it evolves in the bottle , it can change from one week , month or year to the next , most good wines go through evolution in their life cycle and they have peaks and troughs when it comes to both quality and taste . Of course , what a wine tastes like can often depend on how the wine has been stored too . As a result of all these factors , and more , what we taste from a bottle one year may be markedly different from what an expert or critic may have tasted , involving the same wine , from the same vintage , a few months , or years earlier , somewhere else in the world .
So , this month ( and as we are now allowed to collect in groups of up to 30 outside ) I thought I would put ‘ wine democracy ’ to the test . Invited to this democratic event were twelve people , to taste 17 different wines . All bar one of these wines were put into pairs . Each pair , and the single odd wine out , was paired with a different food course .
The wines tasted were :
• Ice Cuvée Rosé Peller Estate , Niagara , Canada [ N / V ]
• Bergstrom ‘ Old Vines ’ Chardonnay , Oregon , USA [ 2016 ]
• Rainer Wess Gruner Veltliner , Kremstal , Austria [ 2019 ]
• Dr . Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese , Mosel Saar
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