• More than long legs: The great Elin McCoy takes on wine developed and marketed for women, the ones with names like Skinnygirl: “According to the new ‘girly-wine’ brand marketers, we want to be skinny, to toss our hair playfully like ponies as we pick our bottles to match moods, not foods. … Just looking at them makes me want to forget about drinking and head for the gym.” McCoy’s piece does an excellent job of deconstructing the way these wines are marketed, along with the notion that there is some male fantasizing going on that has nothing to do with women. And the other thing about the wines? How about this for a tasting note? “Chilled plastic cup party fare.”
• Trials and tribulations: Mike Dunne writes about the rigors of judging wine competitions, and especially if and how palate fatigue and alcohol affect the way judges score wines. His theory is that judges run into a wall, caused by tasting too many wines (palate fatigue) and the alcohol, some which is absorbed even when judges spit. It’s a thoughtful piece, well worth reading to anyone who wonders about wine competition medals and if they mean anything.
• Making scores mean something: Regular visitors know that the Wine Curmudgeon considers this all but impossible, but one group wants to see if it can be done. The Ultimate Wine Challenge aims to give scores some depth by using a panel of expert judges to assess wine, so that consumers can trust the 100-point system results. The judges were impressive, and the results seemed mostly spot on (with a few surprises that made me wonder if palate fatigue had crept in). The catch? Wineries have to enter their products, paying $95 a bottle for the privilege, and only 700 wines were rated – about the number done in a small competition.
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