As long as we're on the subject of wine writing and its various deficiencies, consider this video. It pretty much puts everyone in the wine business in their place, from consumers to wine writers to retailers to restaurants to producers. Congratulations to VinnyFi1 at YouTube, who certainly knows how to cork a bottle.
The section about wine writers is priceless. The quote in the headline is from the video, and there are a couple of others that are almost as good, whether it's calling the Wine Spectator the Wine Dictator or discussing how to hoodwink those 30-something wine types who want to be famous more than they want to know about wine. And calling restaurants burglars for their pricing strategies isn't bad, either. Don't know who VinnyFi1 is (and this is his only video), but the Wine Cumudgeon is jealous that he didn't think of this first.
I'd also like to recommend a video called "96 points," from Dalforno, also from YouTube, which pretty much says everthing that needs to be said about the 100-point scoring system. It includes the classic exchange: "What does a 96-point wine taste like? Between a 95-point wine and a 97-point wine." Be warned, though, that the language is reminisicent of my days working on newspaper copy desks; if that's a problem, you'll probably want to skip it.
Excellent!
Posted by: KJ Karl | April 09, 2012 at 06:27 AM