The Wine Curmudgeon

Expensive wine, better wine and wine writing

Buried at the bottom of post on a Wired science blog, which recaps research on the expensive wine/better wine issue, is this:

If the only story we can tell about wine is its price, then our pleasure will always be linked to cost, even though this link doesn’t exist in most taste tests. A much better (and more cost-effective) idea is to find some other narrative, to focus on aspects of wine that don’t require a big expense account. Knowledge is free.

Which is a damning indictment of wine criticism -- and by science writer and Rhodes Scholar Jonah Lehrer, no less. He writes that it's accepted scientific fact, based on robust research, that expensive wine isn't better wine just because it costs more.

Then Lehrer asks the question that no one in the wine business wants to ask, let alone answer: If there is no correlation between wine price and quality, why does wine writing insist there is? Why doesn't wine criticism deal with what Lehrer calls the subjectivity of taste: "We’ve somehow turned the most romantic of drinks into a commodity worthy of Consumer Reports."

Regular visitors here know how the Wine Curmudgeon feels about that. What's interesting about Lehrer's post is the perspective he brings, which is to understand that there is more than "wine" going on when we drink wine, and he touches on neuroscience, psychology and even philosophy. What happens, he writes, is that "if we think a wine is cheap, it will taste cheap."

All of which, of course, is something that those of us who write about wine rarely take into account. Even I'm guilty of this sometimes. Championing cheap wine just because it's cheap is its own form of snobbery, and just as insidious as any other form of snobbery. What's better, says Lehrer (and what I hope I do more often than not), is criticism based on education. "We should realize that we can make our wines much more delicious, if only we take the time to learn about them," he writes.

Which seems so obvious, and yet is so rarely done.

Wine of the week: Hayman & Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

During the Australian wine boom last decade, one of the big wine companies thought it would be clever to pair a top Aussie winemaker with a leading California winemaker. The result was the $15 Hayman & Hill line. I got to taste with David Hayman, the Australian half, when the brand was introduced, and was quite impressed.

But, as often happens with these things, what seems clever to a big wine company at one moment is forgotten about at the next. The Hayman & Hill wines, despite top-notch reviews, are sporadically available and the label doesn't seem to have its own website any more. And the last I heard, neither Hayman nor Dennis Hill, the American, had much to do with making the wines.

Which is too bad, because Hayman & Hill's bottles deserve the good reviews they get. This Napa Valley cabernet ($15, sample) is a previous vintage, and it sat in the wine closet for a year before I realized it was there. But it was worth waiting for, with lots of black fruit (but not overdone or sweet) and enough tannins to stand up to the fruit and the acid. This is the kind of Napa cabernet that I appreciate: Sturdy, fruit forward and ready for a piece of red meat -- but not overpriced.

April 2011: Best month in blog history

More visitors -- 1.3 percent more than in December 2010, the previous record holder. As part of that, the blog's Technorati authority is at an all-time high, and that puts the blog 260th among the food and wine sites that Technorati follows and at 5,885 overall. And, if that wasn't enough, Quantcast says the blog remains among the top 25 percent of the 1 million blogs and Web sites that it tracks.

All of which continues to surprise me more than a little, and makes me quite grateful for your support. Thank you.

Winebits 179: Consumer spending, corporate wine, surgeons and wine

• Bring on the booze? The economy is picking up, so we're getting ready to spend more money on wine, says a study from business advisory firm AlixPartners. Almost 9 out of 10 of us -- up from 7 of 10 last year -- will spend the same or more on alcoholic drinks in the coming 12 months. We'll do it in bars and restaurants, says the study, though there was one note of caution. Said an Alix official: "When consumers were feeling more of the full frontal assault of the financial crisis and the recession, more of them were likely to say they were going to spend less in total. Fewer consumers are saying 'I'm going to spend less,' but they haven't swung over to say 'I'm going to spend a lot more.' "

• Another merger that didn't work: Australia's Fosters Group, which spent A$7 billion to put together a wine and beer company over the past decade, has decided that the combination wasn't such a good idea after all. It has spun off the wine division, which includes Beringer and Penfolds, to a separate company. But that may not be enough to save the company, reports the Economist. All told, Fosters may taken a A$4.3 billion loss in the deal, which is the second massive wine unraveling this year. Constellation Brands sold its Aussie labels for A$230 million in February; they had cost the company A$1.85 billion.

• Surgeons shouldn't drink and cut: Yes, we have a study. Researchers in Ireland have found that drinking too much alcohol appears to interfere with a surgeon’s skills, even the day after. As regular visitors know, the Wine Curmudgeon announced an embargo on wine and health news in 2009; the studies and claims had just gotten too silly. But this story deserved mention, if only because it's difficult to believe that someone had to study the effect of a hangover on someone who cuts into people's bodies with a sharp object.

$200 worth of wine

Don't fear, regular visitors. That's not one bottle of wine, but the result of a recent Wine Curmudgeon shopping expedition -- 13 bottles, only two of which cost more than $16. And there wasn't a stinker in the bunch.

The occasion for this spree? A chance to shop at Spec's, probably the best liquor retailer in Texas. Spec's doesn't have any stores in Dallas, but I was in Austin for a wedding and Spec's has several stores there. So that gave me a chance to check out Spec's vast inventory (at 80,000 square feet, it's bigger than most grocery stores) and its very competitive pricing. I was not disappointed.

More, after the jump:

High alcohol: The controversy continues

What kind of a stir would a food magazine cause if it said it was going to list the ingredients in its recipes? None at all.

But the wine business is not the food business. Only in wine would a controversy ensue when the San Francisco Chronicle and Decanter magazine, two of the leading members of the Winestream Media, announced each would start listing alcohol levels for the wines it reviewed. Said the Chronicle's Jon Bonne: ".. [W]e resisted printing them regularly because the act of bringing alcohol into the discussion of a wine is inherently political."

Which says a lot about how screwed up the wine business is. Bonne is right -- unfortunately, reporting alcohol levels in an alcoholic beverage has become political, because much of the wine establishment has made high alcohol its cause. Winemakers have pushed alcohol levels to 15, 16 and even 17 percent, even in white wine, and have been rewarded with glowing reviews from Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator. Those of us who object, like the Wine Curmudgeon, are called philistines and told we don't understand the issue.

Most wine drinkers want to know alcohol levels. As one commenter noted in the Chronicle story, "If I wanted to get sh*tfaced, I could do it for a lot less than $50 a bottle." But that's of little concern to the people who make and write about these wines. They know best, and they're going to tell us what to think. More, after the jump.

Mother's Day wine 2011

Want to buy Mom wine for Mother's Day? Or serve something she'll enjoy for brunch? The Wine Curmudgeon is ready, willing, and able. Keep in mind our wine gift-giving guidelines ("Don't buy someone wine that you think they should like; buy them what they will like"), as well as these suggestions:

• Naked Grape Pinot Grigio 2009 ($8, sample): Pleasant pinot grigio, which isn't easy to do for less than $10. This California white has more lemon fruit than Italian versions, and is missing the off-flavors that frequently crop up.

• Robert Mondavi Private Selection Meritage 2009 ($11, sample): All in all, a well made $11 red blend. It has California-style black fruit, but not overdone, plus better balanced tannins than one usually finds at this price. There is even oak for people who like that sort of thing.

• La Crema Monterey Chardonnay 2009 ($20, sample): Some oak on the nose, but it's balanced by lots of green apple fruit and clean, lively acidity. Think of a California version of Chablis.

More about Mother's Day wine:
• Mother's Day wine 2010
• Mother's Day wine 2009
• Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rose NV