Reading a Wine Critique

One of the most controversial issues in the world of wine is wine review\critique. More than once I’ve seen the demand for a certain wine rise, and consequently its price, after receiving a good critique from a world renowned wine critique. This phenomenon is a direct result of “Score Chasing”. Score Chasers are those people who run and buy wines which received high scores by critiques. Nowadays critiques can be found everywhere – In magazines, blogs, forums, newspapers etc. So, how can we still enjoy reading wine critiques without being badly influenced by it? How can we prevent ourselves from becoming “Score Chasers”?

Wine Critiques – Objective or Subjective?

Can\Should we consider wine critiques as Objective? Or should the mere “Scoring” turn them, in our eyes, as subjective, as 10 points given to the scent of a wine could never be considered as an absolute fact. In my opinion – Both.

Wine critiques are both Objective & Subjective, dependent to the part of the critique we refer to. In order to explain this notation, I would first like to describe the structure of a basic wine critique. Than we can analyze which part should be considered objective and which subjective.

Wine Critique Structure

The typical wine critique includes the following parts:

• Technical Details – Name, Vintage, Varietals, Alcohol, etc.
• Additional Details – Series, Vintage, Winery
• The Main Critique – Color, Scents, Flavors that compose the wine
• The Score – A numeral representation of the critique
• Future Evaluation – Aging ability & Current status
• General Details – Additional data that does not fall under any other category

Objective or Subjective

Technical Details – technical details are with no doubt objective, and give us important information regarding the wine.

Additional Details – Most of this part will usually be objective and include additional technical information, not necessarily related to the wine itself, such as the quality of the vintage, series details etc. However, in this part it is important to notice that the writers own opinion does not find itself by accident added to the critique.

The Main Critique – This is where things get complicated, as different people have different level of senses. It is very likely that some have more sensitive senses then others. Many researches show that woman have better sense of small then man, something that defiantly assists when one analyzes a wine’s fragrance.  If so, how should we consider this part of the critique?

Even though different people have different sense levels, the major fragrances and flavors composing a wine will be noticeable to any trained taster. A given tester may small or tastes an additional flavor in a wine, but most tasters will show a general consistency on which we can build a solid critique.

The Score – This in my eyes, is the most subjective part of the tasting. Set aside the fact that different tasters have different scoring methods, even tasters how use the exact same scoring method can translate a gives flavor to a different number. At a tasting in which 2 tasters notice concentrated fruit, the first taster, how prefers concentrated flavors may give a higher score to such wine, where a second taster, how prefers more saddle tastes would give a lower score to the same verbal description, therefore this part should be considered purely subjective.

There are even more problems with “Scoring” a wine, such as – Giving wines from high valued wineries good score by default or the wish to not deviate from the score scale given to a wine by other critiques.

Future Evaluation -Even though this is the writer’s personal opinion as to the aging ability of a wine, this assumption usually relies on his experience and could be considered positively.

General Details -This section may include food matching, wine maker review, and any other information involving the wine. This information should be read carefully and you should mind whether the information is a fact or the writer’s own personal opinion of things.

Points to Consider

Personal Flavor – Even the most impressive wine critique, from a world renowned wine critique, will not make a wine more fitting for your pallet as each and every one of us has its own unique pallet. For example – I prefer wines with concentrated scents and flavors, and do not like wines in which the barrel can be noticed. Learn your pallet, examine different wines and figure out which are your favorite varietals, alcohol level, fruit level, flavors, etc.

Read Wine Critique – Preferably from more than one wine critique and then try the wine. Figure out which of the critiques was closer to what you felt when you drunk the wine. You might find a wine critique on which you can relay, maybe more than one.

Loved a Wine – Learn it – If you tasted a wine you like, learn its technical details – varietals, alcohol, vintage, terroir. Using these details you will be able to define your pallet and even locate new wine to match it.

Summery

When reading a critique, I try to figure out whether that wine discussed fits my pallet or not. I try and focus on the technical details of the wine and the description of scents and flavors, as this is the real information from which you can learn about the wine.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this issue, so feel free to drop a comment.

Buying Wine on a Tight Budget

Most of us can’t afford to buy expensive wine for our every day drinking, which bargains the need for shopping after cheep wine, and by saying cheep wine I do not mean bad wine. If you follow some basic rules you will be able to find some excellent bargains. Yes, every now and then you find yourself with a bottle of undrinkable wine, but most of the time you’ll be able to get some nice wine for a very reasonable price. Enough said, now we can go about my rules for shopping cheep wine.

When you buy wine with a tight budget, knowing, could be very helpful. This is since buying cheep wine, is a lot like betting in a poker game. Luck is very much of a factor, however, knowing your statistics helps your odds of winning.

Know your wine regions
When thinking of wine regions one thing pops up immediately, and that is that a lot of the wine regions out there can be associated with certain grapes.
For example:

• Australia – Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz
• Germany – Riesling, Gewurztraminer
• California – Cabernet Savignon, Zinfandel
• Argentina – Malbec

This means that when shopping for wine of a specific region, aiming at its more familiar grapes would probably result with better chances of good wine.

Know your wineries
Some wineries are know for the mid level wines, such as the Golan Heights winery here in Israel. This winery makes a world class excellent wines (Yarden & Katzrin lines). They also make an excellent mid level line called Gamla which will give you magnificent value for your money. Knowing your wineries can help you pick wines from their mid level line and still get excellent results.

Know your wine store
A lot of wine store out there do promotions and wine tasting events. Attending wine testing event helps you to get familiarize with wine you might otherwise never come across. When you see a promotion of some wine you think your going to like, write down its name and look it up over the Internet, you can see immediately what people thought of the wine, they may not have your exact taste, however, if 10 people wrote that a wine they drank was great, most chances it is great. (Same goes the other way)

Hope these rules will help you next time you shop on a tight budget. If you think of a rule I missed feel free to drop me a comment and I will update this post.

Cheers

My Wish List

Since I’m feeling very much patriotic these days, my wish list is composed of Israeli wine only. I think that there are a lot more, local interesting wines to try, before proceeding to wine from other nations.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am into trying wines that were not made in Israel, however I do wish do be focused more of the local industry before looking elsewhere, especially since we have a lot of great wines to try.

I’m composing this list from both wine I tasted and want yo have in my wine cabinet for future drinking and wines that I have yet to try.
I’ll be sure to state which is which.

If you think that I am missing something please drop a comment, and I’ll add this wine to the list

And now for the List: (will be updated soon)

Golan Heights:

• Katzrin 2004, 2003
• Yarden – C.S Elrom Vineyard 2003, 2004
• Yarden – C.S 2005

Galil Mountain:

• Yiron 2005

Margalit:

• Special Reserve – C.S 2005

Yatir:

• Shiraz 2006

The most exciting wine I had.

We all had or chance to during some nice wine, some good wine and even some great wine. But did you ever had an exciting wine?
I remember my first real exciting wine, you know, the wine you did not expect to be all that great but turned out to be real special. The kind of wine you’ll love talk about among wine lovers.

Well, mine was a Turkish wine. Yes you heard me right, Turkish. I know Turkey is not considered an excellent wine producer, but this time they did something right.
I tasted this wine about 8 years ago and just about when I was starting to show interest in wines. I had no idea about wine rating or even how to taste wine. All I knew was that I like drinking it. So, I can’t give you my testing notes for this wine, rather I can tell you about the experience itself.

Kavaklidere – Selection Red 1987 (Grape: Öküzgözü, Boğazkere)

The year was 2002, and I was living in Turkey back then (Used to work for the ministry). We were having a nice dinner on a Friday night with friends from the embassy, and I remembered that I have in my wine cabinet an interesting wine that caught my eye the other day at the local wine store. I was intrigued by this wine since I could not find any vintage from before or after 1987. It seemed like they released a version of this wine back in 87 and the following year was 99, which is odd, since none takes a 12 years break in wine making. So I said what the hell, lets take one and try it.

Back to our diner, some 15 minutes before we set down to eat, I opened the bottle and poured it into a decenter. I was not much of an expert but I did know that a 15 years old wine should be given the chance to open up a bit before you approach it. However, being very curious about this wine I decided to take a sip right then and there to see what we are dealing with.
If you could see the look on my face, you would now be laughing you head off, as it was pour acid mixed with sulfur. Not giving up I decided not to tell anyone about this wine and come back and try it 15 minutes later.

When I came back after 15 minutes it was a whole different story, when wine was now drinkable and was even starting to show some interesting flavors. One thing I do remember is that the color was brownish.
I took the decenter and poured wine to all of our friends, and we decided to try it every 5 minutes. As time grow by, the wine evolved beautifully, each time showing us a new layer of flavors. At about 45 minutes after I opened the bottle the wine reached its peek and it was magnificent. unfortunately it only lasted for 10 more minutes, after which it was broken and undrinkable.

I will always remember this wine as my first exciting wine, and now I know why it was the only vintage to survive for 12 years.
Hope you enjoyed this story. If you have an exciting wine you want to share with me & my readers please drop a comment.

cheers