Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC4 Theme, Merlot is Back!, And a Few Videos
Meritage time!
Let’s start from the answer to our weekly wine quiz #76, grape trivia – Roussanne. In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about white grape called Roussanne.
Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Explain the source of the name Roussanne
A1: Name Roussanne most like comes from the word “roux”, which refers to the reddish color of the grapes.
Q2: Which one doesn’t belong and why:
a. Hermitage, b. Côte-Rôtie, c. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, d. St.-Joseph
A2: b. Côte-Rôtie. Roussanne is allowed to be blended into the red wines of the three other regions – but the white grape allowed to be used in Côte-Rôtie is Viognier.
Q3: Outside of Northern Rhône, the traditional bending partner of Roussanne is…
A3: Grenache Blanc is the most popular blending partner for Roussanne outside of Northern Rhône
Q4: Roussanne was re-introduced in California in the 1980s, only to be proven in the late 1990s to be not the Roussanne but another grape. Do you know what grape was that?
A4: Viognier. Randall Grahm, winemaker from Bonny Doon winery, brought [illegally] a number of cuttings of supposedly Roussanne from France at the beginning of 1980s. In 1998 it was found that the grape is actually Viognier, not the Roussanne.
Q5: One of the first California “Roussanne” wines from the 1980s had a specific name. Can you name that wine?
A5: The “Roussanne” wine was produced by Randall Grahm under the name of Le Sophiste.
Sadly, there was very little participation in this quiz – I have to acknowledge Julian at VinoInLove, who was a sole participant – thank you Julian! I guess I’m going to far into the vineyard with some of my latest quizzes… Well, one more white grape, and we are switching back to the red right after.
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First of all, we have a new theme for the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge! Now in its 4th round, it is hosted by The Wine Kat, winner of the round #3. The theme of the #MWWC4 is… OOPS!, and I can tell you that oops is looming, as the submission deadline is already very close, it is only two weeks away – October 23rd. Get your writing pants… oops, may be glass? Writing hat? Well, whatever oops gets you moving, get it on and start writing. The theme announcement and all the important dates can be found here.
Just a quick question at the moment. What do you think of Merlot? Do you still have an image of Miles “I’m not drinking no #$%^ Merlot”, or does it trickle back to you table and Cellar? Well, I can tell you that about 100 Merlot producers from California want to make sure you will once again look at Merlot seriously. Tomorrow, October 10th, is actually the start of #MerlotMe, a month-long celebration of Merlot, taking place both with the live events and all over the social media. You can find more details about the festivities here – and don’t wait, grab your bottle already!
Continuing the theme of Merlot, I wanted to share with you this video, made by one of the Merlot pioneers, Gundlach Bundschu:
And for no other reason, but just for your enjoyment on this Wine Wednesday, here is the video which I wanted to share a while ago – a “Blurred Lines” parody, made by the enterprising folks at Jordan (in addition to making great wines, they also have one of the best social media outreach in the wine industry):
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
[Mind Boggling] Price of Wine
I’m again [lucky bastard] in Portugal, and get to enjoy this beautiful country. Of course one of the first places I have to visit is a supermarket, to see what’s new in the wine section (you can find some illustrations for my first encounter here). My eyes stop on the bottle of wine from the unknown region for me – Tejo. There were both red and white wines, standing next to each other, so I decided to grab both.
Let me give you description of the wines.
2012 Enóloga Antonina Barbosa Vinho Branco Tejo Vinho Regional (12.5% ABV, made from the Portuguese grape called Fernao Pires): Light yellowish color in the glass. Spectacular perfumed nose, resembling some of the best French Viognier – shows bright perfumed fruit, very elegant, not over the top. Very round and delicate on the palate, touch of apricot, peach and white apple, fresh acidity, perfectly dry and balanced. Drinkability: 8
2012 Enóloga Antonina Barbosa Vinho Tinto Tejo Vinho Regional (13% ABV, a blend of Aragonez, Castelao and Cabernet Sauvignon): Ruby red color in the glass. Fresh fruit nose, shows nice ripe concentrated fruit and a touch of earthiness. On the palate, very restrained, dry, touch of tart cherries, some earthiness and light tannins presence. Good acidity and good overall balance. Drinkability: 7
So we are looking at two good wines. Now, let me ask you a question. Based on the description above, how much these wines should cost?
I will give you a few seconds to think about.
And a few more seconds.
And a few more.
Ready? What do you think?
Okay, we can skip the drum roll, but let me know if you expected to see this number.
€1.29 each.
A whooping €1.29.
I think this is pretty impressive, that such a level of quality can be achieved at such a price of the wine. This wine is a private label, made for the Pingo Doce stores, by the Falua winery. Of course as this is the case with the private labels, no additional details can be found on the winery web site.
I also learned about relatively new designation for the Portuguese wines – Tejo Vinha Regional, which was created in 2009 to be used in the Ribatejo region. Ribatejo DOC (higher classification) is retained for some specific areas of the region.
That’s all I have for you for now. There were many other great wines, food and very special experiences, like Port barrel tasting all the way to the 1970 – this all hopefully will be shared in this blog in the orderly fashion.
So, can you top my quality/price ratio? I will let you think about it. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #76: Grape Trivia – Roussanne
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
We are continuing our grape trivia series, still focusing on the white grapes, and today’s subject is the white grape called Roussanne.
Last week we talked about grape called Marsanne, and today’s quiz is about its close friend, Roussanne. Similar to Marsanne, Roussanne is also seemed to appear first in the Northern Rhône, and then from there it slowly got into the other wine regions. Today it is growing in different areas in France, in Australia, California, Washington, Texas ( up and coming to the greatness), Spain and … Italy. If you remember, Italy was the major winemaking country which didn’t make any Marsanne wines. Another interesting note about Roussanne is that it is actually allowed to be a part of the 18 grapes permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines.
Roussanne is a late ripening variety, and it is also susceptible to the various grape diseases, which makes it tricky to work with in the vineyard. However, Roussanne compensate from those vineyard difficulties with great flexibility in the hands of the winemaker, helping to create full bodied, long living wines which greatly improve with age. This is where Roussanne is often paired with Marsanne to create those spectacular ( and very expensive 😦 ) white wines of Northern Rhône.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Explain the source of the name Roussanne
Q2: Which one doesn’t belong and why:
a. Hermitage
b. Côte-Rôtie
c. Châteauneuf-du-Pape
d. St.-Joseph
Q3: Outside of Northern Rhône, the traditional bending partner of Roussanne is…
Q4: Roussanne was re-introduced in California in the 1980s, only to be proven in the late 1990s to be not the Roussanne but another grape. Do you know what grape was that?
Q5: One of the first California “Roussanne” wines from the 1980s had a specific name. Can you name that wine?
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Simple Recipes: Roasted Chicken Breast
I’m sure that a concept of a “simple” recipe is largely individual. For me, it means that you have a few ingredients, and the actual prep time is rather short. Actual cooking can be short, long or very long, like the beef brisket I shared with you a while ago – but the actual cooking time doesn’t affect the difficulty level of making the dish.
The dish I’m talking about today perfectly fits the bill – very few ingredients, very simple to make. Why am I talking here about something as banal as roasted chicken breast? I love the ultimate flexibility of this dish. Without changing the complexity for a bit, you are limited only by your imagination in the way the dish will taste, and also in the ways you can use it.
It just happened to be that I’m mostly responsible for making the school lunch for my daughter (sometimes she would make it herself, but I was unable to solidify that tendency). One of the easiest and most convenient items to make is a wrap. And we were making the wraps for the long time with Costco’s pre-sliced roasted turkey breast. The Costco product tastes fine, but I always wondered, how much preservatives do you need to make something like pre-sliced turkey breast to last for at least two weeks after it is opened (try that with regular deli meat – but please don’t share the experience). At some point, we decided that we have to try something different. Almost a revelation, but we recalled that a few times we roasted chicken breast, and it would perfectly fit the purpose of the “sandwich meat”. From that moment on, this simple roasted chicken breast proven its versatility many times. Now, let me give you recipe first and then we can talk about a few possible uses.
Roasted Chicken Breast:
- Prep time – 5 minutes, cooking time – about 50 minutes
- 3 lb chicken breast (about 3 large pieces)
- Dry herbs or any rub spices
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt, pepper – according to the individual taste
- cooking time – about 50 minutes ( assume 15 minutes per pound) at 375F
Cooking instructions: Take chicken breast, put it the bowl, add herbs, spices, salt, pepper and olive oil. Mix together, cover with plastic, refrigerate for few hours if desired. Pre-heat oven at 375F. Arrange chicken breast on the roasting pan, put in the oven and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes per pound. When done – take out, let it cool down. Voila – your roasted chicken breast is ready to be used for many possible applications. Here is the same recipe in the form of pictures:
Chicken breast, ready to be prepared
Herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, olive oil – simple
Spices applied – you can marinate, or cook right away
Ready to roast
And we are done!
Again, my real point here is to give you an idea of the dish, which can be taken in many possible directions:
- you can substitute the spices with anything your heart desires – BBQ rub, chipotle, spicy paprika, cajun – anything you can think of
- instead of using dry spices and oil, you can use marinades – mayo with mustard, wine, yogurt and garlic, anything you like.
Once the chicken breast is cooked, you are looking at multiple uses as well:
- as cold cuts – we usually make a few flavors for the parties
- in sandwiches and wraps
- top the salad
- chop it into the tiny pieces and make filling/topping for tartlets, pies, etc.
The last (and almost unbeatable) important factor for me – where I live, it is still possible to buy boneless chicken breast for $1.99/lb – compare that with the price of deli meats…
Anyway, I’m done here. I wonder what you think about this simple dish, and if you have your “staple of simplicity” in your home cooking – comment away. And be assured (or scared) – I have more simple recipes to share with you. Until that time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC3 Winner, The Way You Pour, Wine and Shutdown, and more
Meritage time!
As usual, let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #75, grape trivia – Marsanne. In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about white grape called Marsanne. Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Name the grape, typical blending partner of Marsanne in Northern Rhône
A1: Roussanne.
Q2: True or False: Plantings of Marsanne in Australia far exceed Marsanne plantings in France.
A2: True. Actually, about 80% of worldwide plantings of Marsanne are located in Australia
Q3: Solve the riddle and explain: Part of 8, but not part of 18
A3: Marsanne is one of the 8 white grapes officially allowed in the Rhône appellations. At the same time, Marsanne is not a part of the 18 grapes officially allowed to be used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation
Q4: Marsanne is known in Switzerland under the name of …
A4: Ermitage [blanc]
Q5: Name major wine producing country which doesn’t make any Marsanne wines of notice
A5: Italy. Yes, Italy makes no wines out of Marsanne – at least no wines which can be easily accessible or found on the internet.
I’m glad to report that we have a winner! Jeff of the drunken cyclist fame correctly answered all 5 questions, so he is our uncontested winner and he gets the coveted prize of unlimited bragging rights. Well done!
And now, to the interesting stuff around the web and the vine!
First of all, we have a winner for the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #3! The Wine Kat wrote the winning story, which you can find here. Congratulations to the winner! Now we are all eagerly waiting to learn the theme for the challenge #4 – hopefully it will be announced soon…
Do you know that the way you pour the wine affects how much you drink? Here is the link to the post on the subject. Weather you hold the glass, tilt the glass, pour red or white – all of this factors affect the amount you consume – according to this study, of course.
Wondering about the connections between US Government shutdown and wine? I had no idea there is one, until I read this post by Dr. Vino. TTB, the government agency which approves all the new labels, is part of the shutdown. On one side it makes perfect sense as it is seemingly not-essential. At the same time, as opposed to many other parts of the government, this one actually makes money… Anyway, read the article for more details.
Actually, there is another small post by the same Dr. Vino, which I want to bring to your attention. Before you read it, I have a question for you. Which country do you think might request to put the words “wine kills” on the labels? No, it is not United States. Interestingly enough, it is France, which is concerned with the fact that people drink wine, so this was one of the proposals as a way to reduce wine consumption. Another, similarly bright proposal, was suggesting to ban all the internet writing about the wine – brilliant, isn’t it? You can read the post here – it is short and interesting.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #75: Grape Trivia – Marsanne
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
We are continuing our grape trivia series, still focusing on the white grapes, and today’s subject is grape called Marsanne.
Marsanne seems to originate near the town of Marsanne in Northern Rhône, hence the name. The grape is known at least from the 17th century (but could’ve been used in winemaking before). Marsanne is a foundation for the white wines of Northern Rhône appellations of Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, St.-Joseph and St.-Péray, but it is also used in the white wines throughout the whole Côtes du Rhône region and in a few other regions in France. White wines of Northern Rhône are typically full bodied and powerful, known for its great longevity (might be some of the longest living dry white wines). It is not just the longevity which matters – Northern Rhône whites also known to improve with age.
Marsanne made it to Australia in the 1860s, where it became quite popular. It is interesting that considering the fact that Marsanne wines improve with age, one of the best known Australian producers of Marsanne, Tahbilk, makes two releases per year, offering both current and older ( 6 years older or so) vintages of the wines.
Marsanne also made it to California, however, it is not very clear when. Based on some of the internet sources, Marsanne made it to US in the 1870s and was used in some of the red blends, paired with Syrah to replicate Northern Rhône wines. However, it appears that Marsanne started to be actively used in California wines some time in 1980s, and today it is offered by many producers in California and state of Washington.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Name the grape, typical blending partner of Marsanne in Northern Rhône
Q2: True or False: Plantings of Marsanne in Australia far exceed Marsanne plantings in France.
Q3: Solve the riddle and explain: Part of 8, but not part of 18
Q4: Marsanne is known in Switzerland under the name of …
Q5: Name major wine producing country which doesn’t make any Marsanne wines of notice
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Italian Tapas? Sì, Signore!
Can’t tell you why, but this local Stamford restaurant, called Zaza Italian Gastorbar, had been on my “must try” list for a while. Something in that name, Zaza Gastorbar, is utterly attractive – the same way as you look at the creative wine label and say “wow, cool label, wonder how it tastes like”, the name “Zaza Gastrobar” had that effect on me. I guess it was a promise of a unique experience hiding in a word “gastrobar“. Finally, the convenient occasion presented itself, and off we went.
While it is hard to say that Stamford has its culinary Mecca section of the town, if anything, an intersection of Broad, Bedford, Summer and Atlantic streets can be designated as one – this is where lots of restaurants are located. The good thing in Stamford is that you don’t need to worry about the parking. Unlike many towns nearby, where you need to run circles looking for the street parking, downtown Stamford has plenty of parking garages to accommodate all the hungry people. Well, okay, enough about parking, let’s talk about the restaurant.
Zaza doesn’t accept reservations, but we had no problems finding the table for 6 on Thursday at 6:30. From the moment we walked in, I liked the way the restaurant is decorated, it felt modern but comfortable. One thing you need to be aware of – the place gets noisy. But, when the restaurant is good and busy, which doesn’t?
I love trying food as opposed to just eating. Whenever available, my strong preference is tapas, chef tasting menu, dim sum, or any variation on the theme of small plates. Now, when you think of an Italian restaurant, do you think of it in terms of the small plates? I’m sure first thing which comes to mind is a full plate of pasta, or pizza, or mozzarella sticks. But Zaza, to my absolute delight, has a whole menu section, which is called… yes, Italian Tapas! Luckily, our friends share the same outlook on food, so this was an Italian Tapas night!
Before we get to the food ( mostly in pictures), few words about the wines. I would call the wine list somewhat limited – however, considering that it contains the options starting from $25/bottle, I can’t really complain. We started with 2012 Honig Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley, which is one of the best examples of Napa Sauvignon Blanc – just enough citrus notes, with some fresh grass and delicate finish, very round – that was definitely a great start to our meal. At $46 on the list, it was also a relative bargain (about triple retail).
And then, there was food. In no particular order:
Calamari Fritti, lightly fried, tomato sauce – very well done, light, crispy:
Calamari Fritti
Potato Gnocchi, Butternut Squash, Cream Sauce – not only it was a butternut squash sauce, but butternut squash was perfectly present in the dish. Lightly sweet and delicious together.
Potato Gnocchi
Tuscan Beans, Spicy Tomatoes, Garlic, Pancetta, Olive oil – pancetta makes everything taste better, right? I’m a sucker for white beans, and this dish was perfectly balanced, great flavor profile with a light crunch of crispy fried pancetta.
Tuscan Beans
Lamb Sliders, lamb, polenta, Barolo wine sauce – you expect to see a bun on the traditional sliders – but not on this Zaza slider. Polenta cake was topping off the lamb patty, resembling bun in the appearance -but of course it was no bun at all. Excellent herbal flavor profile on lamb, not overpowering, but working together – this dish just transports you to Mediterranea…
Lamb Sliders with Polenta Cake
Next up – Tuscan Tuna Tartare, fresh Tuna, tomato, capers, basil, balsamic. Love tuna tartare, but I’m typically very dreadful when ordering it. My problem is that a number of tuna tartare dishes I tasted had the same issue – flavor is only on the outside, and once you dig in, the flavor is gone and you are one of one with fresh, but almost tasteless fish. This time, the dish was perfect. Every little morsel was tasty, in and out – a great combination of refreshing lemony acidity, balsamic, saltiness – very successful dish.
Tuscan Tuna Tartare
Next up – Baby Lamb Chop, rosemary, olive oil, arugula, balsamic. I have to admit – I’m a snob when it comes to the lamb chop. About 15 years ago, I was spoiled back in Montreal – the lamb chop I had there was a surreal perfection. Now I measure everything against that experience. I’m glad to report that Zaza’s lamb chop was very close to that perfection – succulent and delicious.
Baby Lamb Chop
I need to mention another wine we ordered. We wanted to drink something red, and I had a problem selecting the wine, both in terms of what I want to drink and what I want to pay. I asked for the taste of the two wines I didn’t know – Montepulciano and red blend from California. While the red blend was not perfect, it was still better than Montepulciano. Thus our choice of red was 2009 Lost Angel Mischief Red Wine, California (13.5% ABV), a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Lost Angel Red Wine
My goal was to find an inexpensive, but palatable wine. At $35, it was definitely inexpensive as the wine list prices are concerned. Had I known that you can find this wine in retail for about $8 – $10, I would probably not ordered it. However, to be entirely honest, it was drinkable – while it was clearly the fruit forward with almost a sweet finish, it carried enough weight and balance to be pleasant (didn’t have any of that over-extracted fruit, which I personally can’t stand). I would not buy this wine to drink at home, but if this would be my only “budget” choice on the wine list, I will drink it again.
Almost as an afterthought, but at the same time very apropos, we ordered a cheese sampler platter right after we were done with the most of the meal. The Cheese Sampler included Buffala Mozarella, Burrata, Stracciatella and Scamorza. Burrata is one of my all time favorite Italian cheeses, and then there was creamy and spreadable Stracciatella – wow, the word “delicious” does only half justice to the way this cheese tastes.
Cheese Sampler
And then of course there was the dessert – everything was very tasty, and I’m not going to inundate you with the details – you can drool on your own:
It is time to conclude the report on this culinary extravaganza. The food was delicious, service was excellent – prompt, attentive, with the smile – the way you want to be treated in a restaurant. I will gladly come back to Zaza at any time. My only concern is the limited selection on the wine list, so next time I might come back with my own bottle – but this is not the wine bar, after all, it is a Gastrobar – and I think it suits this description perfectly.
And we are done here. Until the next time – cheers!
Zaza Italian Gastrobar
122 BROAD STREET
STAMFORD, CT
PHONE: 203.348.2300
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC3 Vote, Greenwich Food and Wine Festival, [In]decent Wine Labels, and more
Meritage time!
First, let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #74, grape trivia – Trebbiano.
In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about the white grape called Trebbiano (known in France as Ugni Blanc). Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Ugni Blanc is a main grape in the production of what famous spirit?
A1: Cognac.
Q2: Name the wine, in which Trebbiano was a required part of the blend, and it was considered to be the reason for a bad, flabby quality of that wine (it is no longer required to be used in that wine).
A2: Chianti. For the long time, Trebbiano was a mandatory part of the Chianti wines, rendering them dull and uninteresting.
Q3: Trebbiano is often a foundation for the popular food product (containing no alcohol). Do you know what food product it is?
A3: Balsamic Vinegar! Yes, of course when you look at the literally a black-colored balsamic vinegar, it is hard to imagine that it is made out of the white grape juice – but all the color comes from the ageing in wood. Trebbiano is a popular choice due to its neutral taste characteristics.
Q4: Contrary to the name, Trebbiano di Lugano is not considered to be a part of the Trebbiano family, but rather related to another Italian grape. Do you know what grape is that?
A4: Verdicchio. Based on genetic analysis, it is established that Trebbiano di Lugano is a close relative of Verdicchio grape from Marche region in Italy.
Q5: When used for the wine production (as opposed to the distilled spirits), Ugni Blanc is rarely used on its own – it is typically a part of the blend. Name 3 grapes, traditional blending partners of Ugni Blanc.
A5: Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle, Sémillon. While other combinations are possible, I was looking for classic Bordeaux lineup, which are these three grapes.
Now, when to comes to declaring the winners (or not) of this quiz, the becomes somewhat of a challenge. Both Michael (who has no web site) and Eat with Namie answered first 4 questions correctly, and provided a different answer to the question #5, compare to what I was looking for, but I can’t fully disqualify their answer. So we don’t have an absolute winner this week, but both Michael and Namie get an honorable mention. Well done!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First and foremost, 3rd Monthly Wine Writing Challenge (#MWWC3) concluded with 15 entries, taking on a difficult theme “possession”. Now it is your time to chose the host for #MWWC4, a.k.a. The Winner of #MWWC3. Here is the post from Sally, the winner of #MWWC2 and the host of #MWWC3, which summarizes all the entries. Your job is simple: 1. Get glass of wine. 2. Read. 3. Vote. Yes, don’t forget to vote!
Now, if you live in a close proximity of Greenwich , Connecticut, or plan to visit the area, here is the event you don’t want to miss – Greenwich Food and Wine Festival, taking place over 3 days, October 3 – 5. In its third year, the festival brings together more than 90 restaurants and vendors, chefs, musicians, sommeliers. You will find great food, great wines, cooking demos by celebrity chefs such as Duff Goldman, live music, BBQ, beer, competitions (had enough?) and more. For the schedule of events and tickets please click here.
Next – do you think some wine labels are going too far? Too suggestive, too sensual, simply indecent? May be some are. Take a look at Tyler Colman’s, a.k.a. Dr. Vino, blog post on the subject. Make sure to check the link to his article in the Details magazine – you will find some interesting labels there.
And the last one for today – another installment of Wine in China is available for your reading pleasure on the Wine Economist blog. This time you can learn about Chinese government involvement and its role in shaping up the Chinese wine industry.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
And All The Fuss About Wine Reviews…
Few days ago I read an article by Joe Roberts, talking about wine reviews. The article, called “Does The Wisdom Of The Crowd Provide Better Wine Reviews Than The Experts?“, and the subsequent comments were evolving around the role of the “crowd-sourcing” in the wine reviews from the sites such as Cellar Tracker versus traditional wine critics and wine experts, the value of wine ratings and all the other critical analysis of wine. Instead of commenting in the thread, I decided to express my thoughts in the form of this post.
Warning – this might be long. You might want to arm yourself at least with one glass of wine. Or more…
It is very interesting to observe “are the wine reviews and wine critics relevant” discussions to periodically flare up all over the blogosphere and all of the digital media. Some of those discussions and opinions are quite antagonistic, from “death of Wine Advocate predicted” to “the number of wine bloggers will decrease dramatically” to “blind tasting puts wine experts to shame again”. Some of them are supported by some facts and findings which authors deem indisputable. And some are written just purely for the entertainment or quick publicity purposes.
For all of us obsessed with wine, the subject of wine ratings and wine reviews is near and dear to the heart. The world seems to rotate around those 98s, A and B, 4 stars and all other metrics. Meanwhile, majority of the wine consumers couldn’t care less. Based on the number of studies, people buy wine based on the label, advice of the store associate and the price. By the way, the price factor is funniest of all (should be a subject of a separate post) – when we buy for ourselves, we always want to find $10 wine which will taste like a $100; when we need to bring a present, we ask for the advice to find the best wine at the top of our budget, and then spend a few extra bucks just not to look cheap. In any case, very few consumers concern themselves with the ratings which are abundantly displayed in many stores (interestingly enough, there are quite a few stores nowadays which are doing away with all those rating displays). Yes, the people who buy more expensive wines are interested to know what the experts think about the wine they are about to shell $50, $80, or a $150 for. Of course wine collectors track all those ratings as they are stock tickers (well, they kind of are). But considering the world of wine, those people are an absolute minority (okay, don’t bring up the 80/20 or 90/10 – that is not the subject of the post).
So Joe Roberts argues that Cellar Tracker ratings might replace all the expert opinions simply because they are the crowd sourced and it is proven by many sources, which Joe is citing, that crowd-sourcing is the way to go in today’s world. It is stated that the crowd-sourcing works because it is proven by TripAdvisor, Yelp, Amazon and thousands of other sources soliciting people opinions. Well, may be, but it depends. Let’s look at Yelp, as the food world is probably more related to the wine world than travel or gadget shopping.
Different people review restaurant on Yelp, and for the most of the cases the reader of the review doesn’t know anything about the writer. But if you think about an average restaurant, a lot of aspects of the review are based on the common sense. The understanding of the “good service” is pretty much universal. The understanding of “clean” versus “dirty” is also quite universal. “Run down” is pretty well understood. When the food is served cold, or you have to wait for 30 minutes for a cup of coffee, you don’t have to be an expert to universally recognize it. And if you ordered steak in a restaurant, I have reasonable expectations that you know how good steak tastes like.
No, you can’t take the ratings on Yelp for granted. People get upset, people get unreasonable – true. But this is where crowd-sourcing works the best. If a restaurant on Yelp has four stars out of five, based on the average of a 150, or 300, or better yet, 1000 reviews, you know that your chances of good experience are pretty high. If the restaurant has five stars based on 3 reviews, you know that means nothing in terms of your potential experience. The fact that that restaurants are judged on the multitude of factors, many of which are universal and even independent of the type of restaurant (clean Thai restaurant with good service is not any different from clean steakhouse with good service), gives you a certain level of reliability of the crowd-sourced ratings.
Wine is different. There is no foundation to all those ratings, outside of smell, taste and ability to deliver pleasure. But – “tastes good” is highly individual. If someone only likes to drink California Cabernet, convincing the person that this Sagrantino was a great wine might be difficult. Now, if you look at the crowd-sourced ratings, like Cellar Tracker offers, it means nothing, as based on the rating alone you can’t align your base with the people who wrote the reviews. You don’t know if the person who rated that St. Joseph Syrah at 78 simply doesn’t like barnyard undertones, or the wine is actually bad. You have to read the review to try to figure out what is wrong with the wine, and why the reviewer didn’t like it, may be he was just in a bad mood or had the wrong food with it.
When it comes to the wine critics, the situation is different. Yes, I know, the most famous of them are periodically accused of bias and various forms of dishonesty, but this is not relevant here. As the critics, they are able (and expected) to judge the wine objectively. Also, wine critics typically have their area of expertise, like James Suckling focusing on Italian wines, Steve Heimoff on California or Allen Meadows on Burgundy. I’m not trying to say that if a critic rated the wine at 95, it means that this will be a great wine for you no matter what – but at the same time, that objective persistency, consistency of the ratings and narrow focus of the critic allows you to align the base, and then have a quick opinion, a probability of liking the wine based on the given rating by a known critic. I don’t buy my wines based on the ratings, and I’m not willing to pay $100 more for the bottle of Cabernet only because Parker gave it 96 versus the wine next to it with only a 90 rating – but that rating allows me to establish a frame of reference.
Let’s look at the big picture. We can see an increased interest to wine all over the world. We also see an increased wine production all over the world. People “en mass” are increasingly more comfortable and more knowledgeable about the wine, especially if we are talking about Millenials and younger generations. And that does lead to the reduced role of “The Wine Critic” (Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc). But – the need for the critical information about the wine is increasing, and as people gain more knowledge and learn to trust their own palates, they are willing to take wine advice from the lesser figures than Parker or Suckling, and they are willing to take it from many different sources – blogs, twitter, web sites and other digital media outlets. People are building their own tribes. This is where Cellar Tracker comes to play – but only for the people who are inside, only for the people who uses the service and is able to align the base. My personal “wine experts” tribe consists of many bloggers I started following over the years, one by one. Reading their posts, tasting the wines they are talking about, having a dialog, I was able to build my alignment, little by little, one glass at a time. I know that I can rely on and willing to take Jeff’s (the drunken cyclist) advice for the Pinot Noir, or Oliver’s (the winegetter) for German Rieslings, Julian (VinoInLove) and Stefano (Clicks & Corks) for any of the Italian wine, or Alissa (SAHMmelier) for the wines of Texas. This is not my unique experience – I truly believe this “tribe concept” works for everybody, more and more so.
Are you still with me? Wow, I really have to thank you for sticking along. Let’s round this up. No, the wine world is not going to rotate around Cellar Tracker. Yes, the role of The Wine Critic will decrease, but in the end of the day we will still have more of them. There will be ever increasing number of people who will be willing to share their experiences (and sometimes put it in the form of numbers), and there will be ever increasing number of people willing to take that advice. Crowd-sourcing? Kind of, but very different. May be “Tribe-sourcing” is the word. The world of wine is big, and it is only getting bigger – I think we all can perfectly get along.
Don’t know about you, but I need a glass of wine. Cheers!
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