----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> -----
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:36:49 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: [wine] Sancere and Pinot and JP's
Greetings,
Vins du jour:
Sancere from France
and/OR
Pinot from anywhere. Even France. :)
Ringers, sparklings, dessert wines, etc. always welcome.
Thursday at 6:30 at JPs Bistro.
Call Bob (612-672-0607), e-mail the list (wine(a)thebarn.com) or
reply to me if you can make it.
Please trim the articles form your replys to me or the list.
Bob
Dave
Betsy
Bill
Russ/Sue
Jim
Alicia
JP's American Bistro
2937 S. Lyndale 55408
(612) 824-9300
Parking: Meters were free after 6 or 6:30.
Side streets may be an option.
Pay lot behind the restaurant.
Cheers,
Jim
Greetings,
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> -----
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 10:51:09 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Greetings,
Sancere and Pinot from anywhere. Even France. :)
Thursday at 6:30 at JPs Bistro.
Call Bob (612-672-0607), e-mail the list (wine(a)thebarn.com) or
reply to me if you can make it.
Please trim the articles form your replys to me or the list.
Bob
Dave
Betsy
Lori
Bill
Russ/Sue
Jim
JP's American Bistro
2937 S. Lyndale 55408
(612) 824-9300
Parking: Meters were free after 6 or 6:30.
Side streets may be an option.
Pay lot behind the restaurant.
Cheers,
Jim
July 9, 2003
>From the Loire, Whites With Bite
By FRANK J. PRIAL
MENTION the Loire Valley to a white-wine lover and chances are he or she will immediately think sauvignon blanc. There are other white wine grapes, of course. At the mouth of the Loire River, near the city of Nantes, the grape is muscadet. Oh yes, and the harsh, untamed gros plant that is supposed to go well with oysters. Chenin blanc dominates Touraine, from Anjou and Saumur westward through Tours and Vouvray, but then slowly at first, sauvignon blanc begins to take over.
>From around the city of Tours and on to Orlés, where the Loire begins its long, leisurely arc to the south, sauvignon blanc is the white wine grape of choice. At Sancerre on the west bank of the river and Pouilly-Fumén the east, it truly comes into its own. Quincy and Reuilly, 30 miles west of Sancerre on the banks of the Cher, are also part of this world, with their own wines made from the white sauvignon grape.
Of these sauvignon blancs, Sancerre is the best of the lot, with Pouilly-Fumé close second. Local experts, unless they recognize a friend's wine, often have difficulty telling the two wines apart although some experts say the Fuméare a bit fuller-bodied and richer.
And at times, the Dining section's tasting panel had the same difficulty as we went through 15 Sancerres and 13 Pouilly-Fumé(not to be confused with Pouilly-Fuisséa wine from the Mân region in southern Burgundy made from chardonnay grapes). We decided to taste them nicely chilled one boiling afternoon because, in the words of Eric Asimov, one of our regular panelists, "they are such friendly, relaxing summer wines."
Mr. Asimov was joined on the panel by two other regulars, Amanda Hesser and me, and a guest, Daniel Johnnes, the wine director of Montrachet restaurant.
After having tasted all 28 glasses, Mr. Johnnes called them a good sampling of what's happening in the Loire Valley. He said: "There are many different styles of these wines, and it becomes a matter of the commercial wines versus those showing the heights these wines can reach."
And there were a good many wines that met all the criteria for a refreshing easy-to-drink Loire white. That is, they had a vivacity and crispness to them, that sharp bite that comes from good acidity. And they had a smoky, flinty flavor and aroma that tells us where these wines come from: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé
Most of the wines we tried were made in the traditional style, aged briefly in steel tanks or large, old barrels to retain the pungency of the sauvignon blanc grapes without adding a new oak flavor, as is often done in California. But a small group of Loire winemakers are experimenting with oak. Sometimes this is done with sensitivity, softly buttressing the sauvignon blanc flavors; often, the oak is overbearing.
A glance at any map of Central France will help explain why Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumétand out among sauvignon blancs. Chablis, which makes some of the greatest of all white wines, is only 50 miles to the east and shares its special terrain, chalk on Kimmeridgian marl, with Sancerre and Pouilly to the east (and Champagne to the north).
In our sampling, we tried to hold the line at $25 a bottle. Except for one at $30, they ranged from $13 to $25, with the average price just over $17. Of our top 10 wines, six were Pouilly-Fumé four were Sancerres.
Our top wine, with three and a half stars, was a Sancerre, Raimbault's 2002 Apud Sariacum ($15). It was also our best value, but isn't the easiest wine to find. Mr. Johnnes found the Raimbault "juicy, ripe and delicious." I found it to be more Californian that Loirean. Also at three and a half stars was a 2001 Pouilly-FuméLes Berthiers, from Domaine Gilles Blanchet ($18). Mr. Johnnes liked its "richness and precision," its "stony mineral finish."
Two wines each garnered three stars, both Sancerres: a 2002 La Croix au Garde from the Domaine Henry Pellé$21), and a village wine from Richard Bourgeoise ($15). Everyone liked the mineral qualities in the PelléThe Bourgeoise wine was Ms. Hesser's favorite.
One wine captured two and a half stars, a 2001 Pouilly-Fumées Pentes from Serge Dagueneau, the uncle of the more famous Didier Dagueneau of Pouilly-Fuméwhom many consider one of France's finest winemakers. Much of Serge's winemaking is done by his daughters, both of whom have worked in the Napa Valley.
Didier Dagueneau's wines, which we did not include, as they start around $50, can be stunning, though they're hardly classic Pouilly-FuméHe ages them in small oak barrels and achieves a richness and complexity unheard of in these wines.
The wines we tasted were traditional feisty sauvignon blancs. In "The Wine and Food Guide to the Loire" (Henry Holt, 1996), Jacqueline Friedrich has fans sensing a move to a softer, California style, and she has them paraphrasing the poet and murderer Françs Villon. "Where," they ask rhetorically, "are the Sancerres of yesteryear?" Our exercise indicated that the change has yet to happen. It had better not. Screw tops at the ready, New Zealanders are waiting in the wings. And they make terrific sauvignon blanc. Takes your breath away, mate.
Tasting Report: A Welcoming Liveliness
BEST VALUE
Raimbault Sancerre Apud Sariacum 2002 $15 *** 1/2
Juicy, ripe and delicious, Daniel Johnnes said. Frank J. Prial called it a California-style wine, big, solid and rich. Eric Asimov found it pungent, fresh and lively. Amanda Hesser detected pineapple and mint in the nose and praised the long finish.
Domaine Gilles Blanchet Pouilly-Fumées Berthiers 2001 $18 *** 1/2
Prial lauded the wine's beautiful nose and rare intensity. Johnnes found richness and precision, and a stony mineral finish. Asimov called it piquant, airy and herbal. Smoky and vivid, Hesser said.
Domaine Henry Pelléancerre La Croix au Garde 2002 $21 ***
Asimov found a rare complexity and depth in this wine. A lot going on, said Hesser, who detected passion fruit and pineapple aromas. Prial liked a mineral touch and long finish. Johnnes called it juicy, vibrant and concentrated with great minerality.
Richard Bourgeoise Sancerre 2002 $15 ***
Hesser's favorite: she liked its delicacy and clarity. Prial detected a wet stone aroma and praised the acidity. Johnnes liked the brightness and crisp finish. Asimov called it was a classic Sancerre with mint and lemon aromas.
Serge Dagueneau Pouilly-Fumées Pentes 2001 $20 ** 1/2
Good concentration with presence and persistence, Johnnes said. Asimov found it lively but narrow, a simple wine. Hesser called it coarse, without much clarity. But Prial enjoyed its attractive touch of citrus.
Marnier-Lapostolle Châau de Sancerre 2001 $15 **
Asimov detected aromas of hay and sweetgrass and a touch of honey that he said added richness. Hesser, too, found honey and an earthiness. Johnnes noted a quality of minerals and decay, which he found appealing. But Prial tasted a sweetness that he didn't care for in sauvignon blanc.
Langlois Pouilly-Fuméhâau Les Pierre-Feux 2001 $16 **
Nicely balanced with a nice bite to it, Prial said. Hesser felt the nose lacked freshness, but liked the softness in the mouth. Johnnes found an attractive peachy quality. Asimov called it tart and minerally.
J. C. Chatelain Pouilly-Fuméomaine de St. Laurent-l'Abbaye 2001 $13 **
Lively, bright, delicious to drink, Asimov said. Prial liked the balance, acidity and finish. Hesser called it vibrant, but Johnnes felt it was light.
Henri Bourgeois Pouilly-Fuméa Porte de L'Abbaye 2001 $15 **
Prial found the nose flowery and the wine vibrant. Fresh and clean with a snappy finish, Johnnes said. Hesser termed it drinkable but not intuitive. Asimov called the flavors clear but found it too tart.
Domaine A. Calibourdin Pouilly-Fuméuvédu Bois Fleury 2000 $17 **
Ripe with a long finish, but lacks concentration, Johnnes said. Hesser detected lots of fruit, lots of lemon zest. Prial called it correct and pleasant, though bland, and Asimov liked the rich aroma but felt it lacked character.
May 16, 2007 WINES OF THE TIMES
A Purple Passion for Pinot Noir
By ERIC ASIMOV
SINCE the movie .Sideways. came out in 2004, America has carried on a passionate affair with pinot noir. Restaurants can.t keep it in stock, wineries can.t make enough of it and consumers show no signs of loosening their embrace of it.
Sales shot up by 70 percent in 2005, and might have continued at that rate in 2006 except that shortages held growth to 20 percent, according to the Wine Institute, a trade organization.
To retain a sober perspective on the trend, Americans drink far more cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, zinfandel and, indeed, merlot than pinot noir. Still, it.s fascinating to think back to the early 1990.s, when, as reported in 1993 in Wines and Vines, a publication for the industry, many pinot noir vines in California might well have been pulled out and replaced had it not been for producers of sparkling wine, who provided a market for pinot noir grapes in those otherwise lean times.
While the unslackening demand for pinot noir makes American producers almost giddy, consumers who have a longstanding relationship with Burgundies, which are also made with the pinot noir grape, are apt to be a mite cautious. Where Burgundy producers aim for harmony, balance and understated beauty, many American pinot noirs offer a lavishness of fruit that can be overwhelming for those used to the more subtle approach.
I count myself among those who have cast a skeptical eye toward many American pinot noirs. Rich, powerful and heavy? Indeed. Buckets of sweet fruit with little structure? Absolutely. Inky purple with lots of alcohol? Of course. In short, all the characteristics that I.m not looking for in a pinot noir.
Nonetheless, the continuing popularity of pinot noir practically demanded that the wine panel go forth and taste, so we plunged in, sampling 25 pinot noirs from .Sideways. country, Santa Barbara County. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Adam Rieger, wine director of Bar Americain, and Rebecca Foster, a sales consultant with Empire Merchants, a distributor.
We did find wines that struck us as over the top, soft and sweet, with flavors that would overpower food. But we were also pleasantly surprised by how many wines seemed balanced and somewhat restrained. We all agreed that we preferred wines that were elegant and structured over those that were powerful, oaky or shapeless.
Pinot noir comes from two main regions in Santa Barbara County. The Santa Maria Valley, south of the town of Santa Maria, forms the northern tier. It has an industrial-agricultural feel to it and remains largely off the wine tourism trail, though it contains some prime pinot sources like the Bien Nacido vineyard.
The southern tier, just north of the city of Santa Barbara, is the more bucolic Santa Ynez Valley, which encompasses a cool region to the west near the Pacific and a warmer area to the east.
Since the two parts of the Santa Ynez Valley were so obviously different, the western portion, between the towns of Buellton and Lompoc, was granted its own appellation in 2001, designated Santa Rita Hills. That designation brought trademark-infringement objections from the Chilean wine company Viñanta Rita, so the appellation is now rendered Sta. Rita Hills.
Thirteen bottles in the tasting were from the Santa Rita Hills and 11 were from the Santa Maria Valley. One was designated Santa Barbara County, meaning the grapes came from more than one appellation.
Our consensus favorite was the 2004 Siduri from the Clos Pepe Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills. Siduri is a husband-and-wife operation that makes small lots of 21 pinot noirs each year from vineyards throughout California and in Oregon.
The Clos Pepe has plenty of bright fruit balanced by an earthiness and the crisp acidity characteristic of many pinot noirs from the Santa Rita Hills. The No. 2 wine, the 2003 Melville from Carrie.s in the Santa Rita Hills, is in a similar mold, with acidity that grounds and gives shape to the intense fruitiness.
The wines ranged from $22 to $85. Our best value was an old favorite, the 2005 Au Bon Climat La Bauge au Dessus from the Santa Maria Valley. This is a balanced wine, built on a more elegant scale than many California pinot noirs, with flavors of blackberry and spices.
Some well-known Santa Barbara names did not make our top 10, including the 2004 Brewer-Clifton Rancho Santa Rosa, the 2002 Arcadian Dierberg, the 2004 Loring Rancho Ontiveros and the 2004 Belle Glos Clark & Telephone.
But some lesser-known names did make the list, like A. P. Vin, shorthand for Andrew P. Vingiello, the owner of this small winery, whose first vintage was 2003. His 2005 Rancho Ontiveros, from the Santa Maria Valley, had the rich, ripe fruit that is typical of so many California pinots, but the anchoring structure and balance held all that fruitiness in check.
Ambullneo, whose 2004 Bulldog Reserve from the Santa Maria Valley was No. 5 on our list, takes a slightly different approach than many top pinot noir producers. Instead of making a series of single-vineyard wines, intended to show off the specific characteristics of a particular place, Ambullneo specializes in blended cuvé so as not to be beholden to single vineyards. On its Web site it asks this question: .What if Burgundy could blend La Tache, Musigny and Chambertin? Just imagine the results..
I can tell you what a Burgundian producer would answer: .Quelle catastrophe!.
Regardless of possible heresy, the Bulldog Reserve manages to be Burgundian in its mellow balance, good acidity and structure. The name, by the way, alludes to a new breed of dog developed through a crossbreeding of bulldogs and mastiffs . a canine cuvé so to speak.
Over all, I was glad not to find as many high-alcohol, sweet-tasting, overly concentrated wines as I had expected. As American chardonnay producers have learned, bigger, louder and more extravagant is not always better.
One day, the infatuation with American pinot noir may mature into a lasting relationship. If so, I think consumers will be thankful to have traded in the fireworks for wines made for the long haul.
Tasting Report: Elegance From Santa Barbara County
Siduri Santa Rita Hills $53 ***
Clos Pepe Vineyard 2004
Earthy and bright with floral and cherry aromas; well balanced and structured.
Melville Santa Rita Hills $60 ***
Carrie.s 2003
Cherry, cola and violet aromas and flavors balanced by vibrant acidity;
bright but not overbearing.
BEST VALUE
Au Bon Climat Santa Maria Valley $33 ** 1/2
La Bauge au Dessus 2005
Deep, dark and balanced with a core of earthy fruit.
A. P. Vin Santa Maria Valley$50 ** 1/2
Rancho Ontiveros 2005
Ripe, rich, well-balanced raspberry and spice flavors.
Ambullneo Santa Maria Valley $85 ** 1/2
Bulldog Reserve 2004
Mellow and well structured with bright fruit and earth aromas.
Tantara Santa Maria Valley 2005 $45 **
Soft and silky with ripe floral and berry flavors and a bit of cocoa.
Hartley Ostini Hitching Post Highliner $45 **
Santa Barbara County 2004
Aromas of licorice, menthol and berries but unbalanced by alcoholic heat.
Ken Brown Santa Rita Hills $53 **
Clos Pepe Vineyard 2004
Spicy and rich with licorice and sweet raspberry flavors.
Lafond Santa Rita Hills $23 **
SRH 2004
Somewhat oaky but well structured with restrained fruit.
Alma Rosa Santa Rita Hills $55 **
La Encantada Vineyard 2005
Ripe and pleasant with flavors of raspberry jam.
WHAT THE STARS MEAN:
Ratings range from zero to four stars and reflect the panel.s reaction to the wines, which were tasted with names concealed. The panelists this week are Eric Asimov; Florence Fabricant; Adam Rieger, wine director of Bar Americain; and Rebecca Foster, a sales consultant with Empire Merchants. The tasted wines represent a selection generally available in good retail shops, restaurants and over the Internet. Prices are those paid in wine and liquor shops in the New York region.
Tasting coordinator: Bernard Kirsch
First we get "imposter" Walleye (Zander anyone....)
and now this:
Hocus pocus! A beaker of truffles
BY DANIEL PATTERSON
New York Times
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:07/05/2007 06:08:01 PM CDT
A truffle by any other name may smell as sweet, but what if that name is 2,4-dithiapentane? All across the country, in restaurants great and small, the "truffle" flavor advertised on menus is increasingly being supplied by truffle oil.
What those menus do not say is that, unlike real truffles, the aroma of truffle oil is not born in the earth. Most commercial truffle oils are concocted by mixing olive oil with one or more compounds like 2,4-dithiapentane (the most prominent of the hundreds of aromatic molecules that make the flavor of white truffles so exciting) that have been created in a laboratory; their one-dimensional flavor is also changing common understanding of how a truffle should taste.
When I discovered truffle oil as a chef in the late 1990s, I was thrilled. So much flavor, so little expense. I suppose I could have given some thought to how an ingredient that cost $60 an ounce or more could be captured so expressively in an oil that sold for a dollar an ounce.
I might have wondered why the price of the oils didn't fluctuate along with the price of real truffles; why the oils of white and black truffles cost the same, when white truffles themselves were more than twice as expensive as black; or why the quality of oils didn't vary from year to year like the natural ingredients. But I didn't. Instead, I happily used truffle oil for several years (even, embarrassingly, recommending it in a cookbook), until a friend cornered me at a farmers' market to explain what I had should have known all along. I glumly pulled all my truffle oil from the restaurant shelves and traded it to a restaurant down the street for some local olive oil.
That truffle oil is chemically enhanced is not news. It has been common knowledge among most chefs for some time, and in 2003 Jeffrey Steingarten wrote an article in Vogue about the artificiality of the oils that by all rights should have shorn the industry of its "natural" fig leaf. Instead, the use of truffle oil continued apace. The question is: Why are so many chefs at all price points - who wouldn't dream of using vanillin instead of vanilla bean and who source their organic baby vegetables and humanely raised meats with exquisite care - using a synthetic flavoring agent?
Part of the answer is that there are still chefs who are surprised to hear that truffle oil does not actually come from real truffles. "I thought that it was made from dried bits and pieces of truffles steeped in olive oil," said Vincent Nargi of Cafe Cluny in Manhattan. That made me put down my pen and scratch my head. The flavor of real truffles, especially black, is evanescent, difficult to capture in an oil under the best of circumstances.
Truffle companies are secretive, and speaking to their representatives does little to illuminate their production techniques. I was told by Federico Balestra at Sabatino Tartufi that its oil is now "100 percent organic," made from dried truffles and other ingredients with flavors "similar to truffle." Vittorio Giordano of Urbani Tartufi called its manufacturing method, though conducted in a laboratory, a "natural process." He described the essence that his company uses as "something from the truffle that is not the truffle."
Although the scent of a truffle just dug can be one of the most profound gustatory experiences of the Western world, it's one that not many people in this country have had on truffles' native soil. Once, there were only a few expensive and exclusive restaurants that re-created that experience, which only select customers could afford. Truffle oil has simultaneously democratized and cheapened the truffle experience, creating a knockoff that goes by the same name.
The competitiveness of the restaurant scene has a lot to do with this trend. What most people know of truffles is truffle "aroma," which has helped shape their expectations of what they're paying for - and how much they should have to pay to get it. "Price is definitely a factor," said Shea Gallante of Cru in Manhattan, who uses black truffle oil to reinforce the flavor of real black truffles in a midwinter pasta dish. "If I didn't use the two drops of oil, I would have to add another 8 to 10 grams of truffle," he said, making the dish too expensive for his clientele.
Many chefs agree that the quality of truffles in this country has fallen in recent years, added to the fact that every minute a truffle spends out of the ground enervates its flavor. The increased scrutiny of imported goods hasn't helped; prolonged stays in customs might be keeping the country safe from exploding fungi, but it's not doing much for the truffle's aromatic intensity.
And Americans, as many were quick to note, like big flavors. "People expect the slap in the face of truffle oil," said Jonathan Gold, the restaurant critic for LA Weekly. "They have lost their taste for subtlety; they want bigger-than-life flavors that are amped up with aromatics. That's American cooking at the moment."
Many chefs are turning to truffle oil as a way to get truffle aromas that, as many chefs put it, "jump off the plate," often dressing real truffles in the oil before sending them to the table to heighten their effect. It raises the question: What will happen when there is a synthetic heirloom tomato scent or an imitation ripe peach flavor? Are we moving toward an era of fake food?
Probably not. Truffle oil seems unique in this regard. Most chefs I spoke with said they were undisturbed by its artificiality, although they are quite concerned with its "proper" usage, which chiefly comes down to restraint: Less, in this case, is more.
Chris L'Hommedieu, chef de cuisine at Michael Mina in San Francisco, used truffle oils during his tenure as chef de cuisine at Per Se in New York, although he said he never developed a taste for them. But when asked how much of his aversion to truffle oil was due to its artificiality, he told me: "One hundred percent. I learned that from Jean-Louis."
L'Hommedieu's recollection involved the late chef Jean-Louis Palladin, with whom he worked at Palladin, a Manhattan restaurant that is now closed. Returning from a trip out of town, Palladin was enraged to walk into the kitchen and find that in his absence, bottles of truffle oil had cropped up everywhere.
Grabbing two of them, he called the staff out to the alley behind the restaurant where the garbage was held. He hurled the oil at the side of the building, smashing the bottles against the wall. "It's full of chemicals," he screamed at his frightened staff members, who scrambled back to the kitchen through the gathering scent of truffle oil mingled with the fetid air of the alley. "No more!"
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Daniel Patterson is the chef and owner of Coi, a restaurant in San Francisco.
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
From: WineStreet Spirits <winestreetspirits(a)comcast.net>
To: winestreetspirits(a)comcast.net
Subject: 2004 bordeaux tasting announcement!!!!!
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:07:11 -0500
WineStreet Spirits & Kozlaks Royal Oaks
Proudly Present the: 2004 Bordeaux Tasting
When: 6:30:8:30 pm Thursday July 12th, 2007
$50.00/person! Seating Limited to 60 people!
Reservations requested! Call/Fax Kozlaks
Where: Kozlaks Royal Oaks 4785 Hodgson, Shoreview
Phone:651-484-8484 Fax: 651-484-7753
Wine: the final frontier. These are the voyages of WineStreet Spirits. Its
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2004 Bordeaux Lineup!
2004 Chateau Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan
2004 Chateau Margaux, Margaux
2004 Chateau Pavie, St-Emilion
2004 Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, St-Julien
2004 Chateau Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe
2004 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, St-Julien
2004 Hosanna, Pomerol
2004 Chateau Monbousquet, St-Emilion
2004 Chateau Pape-Clément, Pessac-Léognan
2004 Chateau Branaire-Ducru, St-Julien
2004 Chateau Calon Segur, St-Estèphe
2004 Chateau Certan de May, Pomerol
2004 Clos du Marquis, St-Julien
2004 Pagados de Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe
2004 Chateau Giscours, Margaux
2004 Chateau Montrose, St-Estèphe
2004 Chateau Pichon-Baron, Pauillac
2004 Chateau Pichon-Lalande, Pauillac
2004 Chateau Pontet-Canet, Pauillac
2004 Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafitte Rouge, Pessac-Léognan
2004 Sociando Mallet, Haut-Médoc
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If you would like to be removed from our email offers please contact us at
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----- End forwarded message -----
Are ratings pointless?
The highs -- and lows -- of the 100-point scale
W. Blake Gray, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2007
Are ratings pointless? The highs -- and lows -- of the 10... The rating systems for (left to right) Wine Spectator, Wi... Robert M. Parker Jr. created the 100-point rating system. Charles Neal, an importer of French wines, chooses not to...
In 1999, Chateau St. Jean's Cinq Cepages Cabernet Sauvignon became an international sensation when Wine Spectator rated it at 95 points and named it Wine of the Year.
The fuss came because a 95-point wine at a suggested retail price of $28 was considered exceptional -- even if many stores quickly jacked up that price. But if a rating is a statistic, it's a malleable one. Earlier this year, Wine Spectator re-evaluated the very same wine as an unremarkable 88-pointer.
"A wine gets rated one time -- a nanosecond in its life cycle," says Sebastiani winemaker Mark Lyon. "From then on, its fate is determined. Aren't wines always evolving? Shouldn't they be rated every year?"
The 100-point rating scale, created by wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr. in the mid-1970s, was a great innovation that has done a world of good for wine lovers. But as it has become the most-accepted critical standard, the scale may have gradually changed from a consumer's best friend into a force that discourages diversity of styles, encourages higher alcohol levels and inflames price inflation for highly sought wines.
It wasn't always that way. The 100-point scale broke the feudal system of rewarding only owners of the most revered vineyard plots, installing in its place a democratic system where wineries everywhere have a chance at high ratings. Small wineries as different as Santa Rosa's Siduri Wines and Spain's Bodega Numanthia have ridden big scores to business success.
Loved or hated, the 100-point scale has an enormous impact at every level of the wine business, including retailers and restaurants, says Kim Beto, a vice president for the large distributor Southern Wine & Spirits.
"Every sommelier in the world will say, 'I don't care about ratings.' But they won't buy (Joseph Phelps) Insignia until it gets 100 points. Then they beg for it," Beto says.
The scale has also punished lazy winemaking and encouraged improvements. Most of all, it gives wine consumers -- particularly beginners -- clear direction in which wines to purchase.
"I find the Wine Spectator rating to be a big help," says Diane Jaquier, an interior designer from San Ramon. "While there are many fabulous new wines on the market, a little assistance from the rating system helps us weed out the good from the not-so-good."
However, some winemakers, importers and retailers complain that the 100-point scale has become a menace.
The main weakness of the scale is the mirror image of its greatest strength: It answers a philosophical question -- is one wine truly better than another? -- with an authoritative, "Yes, this one's five points better."
Most major wine ratings organizations now use the 100-point scale, from the two heavyweights, Wine Advocate newsletter and Wine Spectator magazine, to others including Wine Enthusiast, Stephen Tanzer and Wine & Spirits. The most influential publications rate all wines -- from first-growth Bordeaux to light and lively Chenin Blancs -- on the same scale. The highest scores go to wines of greater power and complexity -- wines that make you notice them. Major publications don't give 98 points to a palate-cleansing Sauvignon Blanc.
By itself, this would not be a problem. But because wines that get higher scores command higher prices, many wineries naturally pursue higher scores, which alters the way wines are made.
One frequent argument is that the drawbacks from the scale's hegemony are the fault of the critics doing the ratings, not the scale itself. While many publications use the 100-point scale, many industry people say only the ratings from Parker's Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator actually move the marketplace. Both publications use multiple critics, but both allow one critic -- not a team of critics -- to give each wine its all-important score. (See The Chronicle's four-star wine ratings.)
Winemakers and some oenophiles like to complain about the "Parkerization" of wine, implying that Parker's personal taste for dramatic, powerful wines has taken over the world.
"The 100-point system makes the supposition that everybody has the same taste, and that wine can be evaluated as if it were a scientific endeavor," says Gerald Weisl, wine buyer for Weimax wine shop in Burlingame. "It's no more scientific than enjoying a pizza, a movie or a book. Some people like a movie and some don't."
Parker declined to return phone calls seeking comment for this article. According to Elin McCoy's book "The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr. and the Reign of American Taste" (Harper Perennial, 2005), Parker developed the scale in the mid-1970s as an amateur taster. At the time, many reviewers did not use a scale, preferring prose that often politely masked a famous wine's shortcomings. Parker wanted to recommend a wine for its performance rather than for its pedigree.
The most popular ratings scale at the time was a 20-point scale invented by UC Davis enology professor Maynard Amerine, but that scale was meant to expose flaws, not espouse virtues: Wines with no defects got scores between 17 and 20.
Parker doesn't really rate wines on a scale of 1 to 100. The lowest score possible is 50, but he has not given a score below 70 in the past seven years. Just 3.6 percent of all wines listed at eRobertParker.com have ratings lower than 80. He used his first newsletter, in 1977, to disparage the 1973 Bordeaux releases, giving the 1973 Chateau Leoville Poyferre 50 points. His highest rated wine in that first issue was the 1974 Sonoma Vineyards Alexander's Crown Cabernet Sauvignon, at 91 points.
Consumers immediately liked the 100-point scale; retailers began posting the scores on "shelf talkers" (small advertisements on store shelves). Wine Spectator started using the 100-point scale in 1985 and other publications, such as Wine Enthusiast and Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, have followed suit.
"I do it strictly for competitive reasons," Tanzer says. "Most American consumers seem to demand it."
In fact, Tanzer believes competition between publications that rate wines is a major reason that scores are getting higher. (See Grade inflation, Page F5.) Yet consumers assume that an 85 from one magazine is the same as another. So what exactly do the scores mean?
According to Wine Advocate's official scale, an 80 to 89 point wine is "a barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor" -- vague language that seems to encompass just about every wine in the world. Wine Spectator is more precise: 80 to 84 points is "a solid, well-made wine" while 85 to 89 points is "very good: a wine with special qualities."
But who pays attention to 89-point wines? For many consumers, it's all about the 90s, which both the Advocate and the Spectator call "outstanding." A quick look at eRobertParker.com reveals that 36 percent of all wines rated by the Advocate get 90 points or more. Wine Spectator gave 90 points or more to 24 percent of the wines it rated in 2006.
"If you don't get a 90, it's better just not to mention it," says San Francisco wine importer Charles Neal, who does not submit his wines for ratings, but whose wines are sometimes rated anyway by magazines. "If a wine gets an 88 or 89, the message is that it's not that good."
Wine Spectator Managing Editor Thomas Matthews says his magazine makes great efforts to ensure consistency from its critics. Wines are tasted blind, but each tasting includes a non-blind, previously scored wine to set the scale. Also, the magazine gathers its critics once a year to taste wines together and calibrate their individual scales.
"It's important for readers to realize that the score is a summary of a subjective opinion," Matthews says. Regardless of the rater, the scale is not as democratic as it seems. While Cabernet Sauvignons from any country might get 100 points, lighter, food-friendly wines simply cannot.
When asked which varietals might get scores above 95, Tanzer and Matthews listed the same ones: Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay and Riesling. Matthews added that the best Nebbiolos and Sangioveses from Italy might score that high. Both said Beaujolais could not. And while Sauvignon Blanc is widely popular, Matthews could think of only one Sauvignon Blanc-based wine worthy of 95 points: Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc, which sells for more than $200 a bottle.
That's a potential reward for wineries that garner stellar ratings: the ability to charge far higher prices. Once a wine hits 99 or 100 points, they almost certainly sell for more than $100; some cost more than $1,000. Bob Golbahar, owner and wine buyer for Twenty Twenty Wine Merchants in Los Angeles, says clients come to his store from as far away as Tahiti and Japan because he specializes in this rarefied sort of wine.
"Money is not an object" for these customers, Golbahar says. "Everybody always wants to try one 100-point wine in their lifetime."
In theory, 100-point wines set the standard for all other wines, which is one reason Tanzer says he's never given that score to a new release. Bouchaine winemaker Mike Richmond says it's unfair to judge daily drinking wines against 95-point ultraconcentrated luxury products.
"Wines that get 87, 88 and 89, those are wines that people should lust after in their usefulness," Richmond says. "Wines in the 90s are caricatures and conversation pieces."
Matthews says that to get above 95 points, a wine must have structure, complexity, typicity and some personal characteristics. The Wine Advocate's Parker has written often about how he enjoys regional differences.
Yet there are the words, and there are the scores. Several winemakers who did not want to be quoted said the way to get higher scores is to let grapes ripen longer on the vine, which produces more intense fruit flavors but also leads to higher alcohol and the absence of distinctive differences between wines of different regions. Wine consultant Barry Gnekow says it's always important to improve scores.
"I say to winemakers all the time, 'You're only as good as your last score,' " Gnekow says. "You've got to follow the basics. Number one, you've got to make a good-quality wine.
"The first entry into the venue is expensive French oak barrels. You're not going to get the scores with American oak. That's what (Wine Spectator's) Laube and Parker taste all the time -- wines aged in expensive oak barrels. The next step is letting those grapes get really, really ripe. That gives the wine power, oomph, really big body. The consequence is high alcohol."
"We've gone from 13 percent alcohol to 15 percent because of this," says importer Neal. "For some people in the wine business, if a wine gets a 95-point score, it's a tip that the wine will be disgusting to us."
Winemakers might also use more new oak, which adds toasty complexity but can block the flavors of the grapes.
Why would a winemaker make a wine he or she wouldn't personally drink? Because the wine business is a business.
"We've moved away from people making their own artisan wines with their own vision to people saying, 'I thought I was doing pretty good until I got an 87 on this Pinot Noir,' " says Sebastiani's Lyon.
Matthews responds: "If Americans didn't like the style of wine that got high scores from critics, the critics wouldn't stay in business."
It's tempting to blame Parker's and Wine Spectator's California critic James Laube's personal love for big-bodied, high-alcohol wines for those wines' proliferation. But Leo McCloskey, founder of the Sonoma wine consultancy Enologix -- which advises wineries how to get higher scores -- says that's wrong.
McCloskey frequently conducts blind tastings with winemakers, some of whom complain about their ratings. McCloskey says winemakers' ratings usually parallel Parker's and Laube's, which he says some winemakers are embarrassed to discover. He also says that 4 to 6 points is the margin of error for most tasters, so that a 91 may not be so different from an 89, even if they're priced very differently.
Still, McCloskey is a big fan of 100-point ratings. "Discrediting the critics is discrediting quality," he says. "When winemakers slam the ratings, that's the culture of the cover-up. That's not useful to the consumer."
Moreover, while some wineries complain about the scores, those that get high ones aren't complaining. Adam and Dianna Lee founded Siduri Wines in 1993 with just $24,000 and no land. A 90-plus rating from Parker on their first release allowed them to sell futures on subsequent wines, giving them the capital to buy grapes from more vineyards. There are dozens of examples like these: Little guys uplifted over big players by virtue of a good score.
The downside is that a bad score -- fair or not -- can leave a winery with cases of difficult-to-sell wine.
"I'm working with the best vineyards and making what I think are really, really good wines," says Jeff Cohn, owner and winemaker of JC Cellars in Oakland. "Then somebody takes a half minute out of their life and gives it a score. That score affects my whole life. The score system is crazy. Winemakers, we live by it and die by it. That doesn't mean we believe in it."
Of course, Cohn could stop submitting his wines for ratings, as Bouchaine's Richmond did. But that would make selling his wines harder.
"If it gets 90 points or more, the wine sells faster," Cohn says.
Because wines with higher scores sell more rapidly, wine stores are more likely to stock them. This alters the choices of which wines people can buy, and the very culture of wine appreciation in this country. Why drink an 85-point Chenin Blanc or Muscadet with your oysters when you can have a 94-point Chardonnay? Isn't that better?
"A bad Montrachet will get 94 points out of 100 and good Muscadet will get 88," says Berkeley wine importer and merchant Kermit Lynch. "A perfect Muscadet should get 100. But the graders will say, 'No, it's not rich enough.' But that's not its duty."
The irony is, even some of the raters themselves acknowledge that they don't drink only highly rated wines.
Matthews, who rates the wines of Spain for Wine Spectator, says, "If I could drink only 90-point wines, would I? Probably not. The wine world is so diverse and gives different kinds of pleasure. If I'm opening a wine on a weeknight with dinner at home, I'm probably going to open a wine that's rated 80 to 88. A great wine demands serious attention. Sometimes you don't have the energy to give it that attention. It's like with music: sometimes you want to listen to a pop song, and sometimes you want to sit down and hear a Beethoven symphony."
Grade inflation
In the first issue of Robert M. Parker Jr.'s Wine Advocate in 1977 -- the publication that introduced the 100-point scale -- the highest rating awarded was just 91 points.
Earlier this year, Jay Miller, a new rater hired by Parker, reviewed nearly 1,000 wines from Spain and gave five of them perfect 100-point scores.
There's little dispute that Wine Advocate scores have trended upward over the past 30 years. Of 78,252 wines listed in the eRobertParker.com database on Monday, 36 percent have scores of 90 or above -- and a score of 96 or more is hardly a rarity, with 2,080 wines listed (2.7 percent). But the underlying reason for the big scores is unclear.
Parker posted the following on his eRobertParker.com bulletin board: "Hard for some of you to believe, but the goal posts have not moved ... wine quality is dramatically better today ... and there are at least several thousand producers making very good to outstanding wines that were ... 1. not even producing wine 15-25 years ago...2. their fathers or mothers or some third party was producing industrial/innocuous swill...I suspect few of you even remember how appalling much of the wine world's products were in the '70s."
Parker was responding to a poster who pointed out that the 1978 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, which Parker called "the finest Cabernet of that very good vintage," got just 92 points in 1985. That score would hardly motivate oenophiles to buy it today; to name just one example, Oakville's Harlan Estate has received 100 points from the Wine Advocate for its Cabernet Sauvignons four times in nine years.
Stephen Tanzer, who also rates wines on the 100-point scale for his International Wine Cellar newsletter, says that giving wines ever-higher scores is a competitive advantage for a ratings publication.
Wine stores display only the highest scores on shelf talkers, so that if Wine Advocate gives a wine a 98 and other publications give it scores in the 80s, the consumer is likely to see only Wine Advocate's name. Eventually, that leads to brand recognition for the ratings organization.
"With ever higher scores in the Wine Advocate, 90 means nothing anymore. Now it has to be 95," says Tanzer, who says he has never given 100 points to a current release.
Wineries also tend to highlight only their highest scores; who can blame them? The 2002 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas Paso Robles red Rhone-style blend got 90 points from Wine Advocate and 78 points from Wine Spectator. Naturally, the winery publicized only the Wine Advocate score.
"High scores have more staying power than low scores," says Tablas Creek general manager Jason Haas. "The good scores get repeated multiple times down the supply chain."
Despite multiple factors driving scores upward -- better winemaking and competition between ratings organizations -- at least they can't get any higher, right?
Well, actually the Wine Advocate awarded "100-plus" points to the 2003 Domaine du Pegau Cuvee da Capo Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The 100-point limit on the 100-point scale may soon become as much a relic as the "perfect" 4.0 grade-point average.
-- W. Blake Gray
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
