Thursday, May 20, 2010

Book Review - The Art and Science of Wine 2007 – James Halliday and Hugh Johnson



The Art and Science of Wine 2007 – James Halliday and Hugh Johnson

This is like when Paul Mccartney collaborated with Elvis Costello and put out some great songs on a few albums that more people should know about. It’s good for these two to work together. It’s about the How and Why of Wine; starting with Terroir to the different wine styles, cellaring, the machinery, chemistry, regional vs national, maturity of wine. Comprehensive and skillful but not a colossal book. A nice slow read that is really good and thorough.
 

 

Monday, May 3, 2010

Wine Scores and Reviews - It's Good to Keep Notes

Reviewing wines always come with a little trepidation. But generally to keep things straight it is good to jot a few reminders down. Many think it is not viable to talk about a wines worth without some kind of scoring system. Wine tasting is totally subjective.
For Example, wine scoring systems such as Robert parker’s 100 point scale or the 20 point scale that Clive Coates uses can be very detailed and influential to a wines price and success; Yet the ratings are meaningless unless readers actually try some of the wines recommended and see whether their appreciation or enjoyment is similar or not. It only really carries any great weight if there is agreement on certain wines.

Some people are totally against scoring; It is a respected point of view due to the fact that wine shouldn’t just boil down to single number because so much goes into it. The goal is to inform the readers of thoughts on certain wines for the plain reason that tasting experience brings strong insight, information and preferences which can be pretty useful to pass along.


WINE CORRESPONDENT 5 POINT SCALE
5 – GREAT
4– ABOVE AVERAGE TO VERY GOOD
3– AVERAGE WELL MADE WINE
2- EVERYDAY WINE NO MAJOR DISTINCTION
1- UNDESIRABLE
S-SLEEPER WINE
V- EXCELLENT VALUE FOR THE PRICE
L- LAVISH
E- EVERYDAY WINE


To help illustrate, the 2004 Martinat Epicurea – Cotes de Bourg: lush and velvet concentrated, complex, cherries, good body and admirable; scores a “5-VS” as a great wine where there is an excellent value for the price along with being a sleeper wine( which is all around surprise and should be seeked out).
On the other hand, the 2006 Chateau Montviel – Pomerol: which is rich with a lot of minerality, and is vaguely interesting scores a” 2 “because it is questionable and does not really provide a great value.
A good scoring system and some notes to remember what you like is helpful in enjoyment of wine. Eventhough there are arguments that wine critics have preferences for flavors and that wine makers are striving to please the critics for high scores. The joy of wine is to find the one that pleases.
Should you always trust wine rating and scores? How do you know a wine is worth buying? How much should I buy? Is the wine good for a gift? All great questions that can be answered by taking some notes and using wine reviews and scores as a shorthand study of the critics thoughts while tasting.