Comments on: More lessons from blind tasting

By: tom merle

tom merle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:42:29 +0000

Though I’m a broken record on the subject, the nuances that Charlie notes in his apologia for not giving a wine a 90+ matters to the 1% of connoisseurs; they matter not to the other 99% of wine buyers, as Charlie would be the first to acknowledge. With the advent of Web 2.0, it’s the “users” (peers) comments that matter to other “users”. The professional evaluators sway is decreasing; it’s now People’s Choice, which is more readily available online, that rules, whatever the commodity or service being sold.

By: PatS

PatS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:50:49 +0000

Charlie

Your response to Bruce shows exactly why many wineries won’t submit their wines for judging – reviewers with a bias. At least you admit yours.

On one hand you say people start with scores, as, of course they do. Yet on the other, you say the “trick” to reviewing wines of the styles you don’t care for is to not give them scores of 90 or above, pretty much assuring most consumers won’t even read the review.

Your comments on OR Pinot are the perfect example – with so many rated above 90, is anyone really going to pay attention to those below that mark?

I certainly don’t mean to single you out, everyone has their own bias. But as a winery owner, why would I waste the time and effort to send you wine samples of something I know you already don’t like?

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:19:03 +0000

Kathy while many of your points on distributors are valid. Do not forget that an ocean of wine is out in the market much of it with no justifiable reason for it to be made in the first place. All too often you see Joe’s cuvee out in the market for no reason than Joe just felt like making some wine. No PR or sales/marketing plan to be seen. Then they sit and complain that nobody else is selling the wine for them. Shame on wholesalers for taking up a product they are not going to back and sell but in my eyes the first to blame is a winery with no plan. Understanding your competition and setting your message sell wine not just shoving it in someone else’s warehouse and expecting it to disappear!

By: kate

kate — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:59:27 +0000

well said Kathy.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:36:51 +0000

Every wine at every point and taste has a market. A restaurant may want a small winery, good price/quality that may get an 84 but isn’t sold in every supermarket. Of course, that kind of sale takes foot traffic on the part of the distributor and distributors no longer have sales staff, they have “take an order” staff. That is where a winery should be directing its anger, not at Charlie or Steve or others.
Often distributors don’t even know the appellation, let alone have a tech sheet for many wines on their lists (you’d think they could at least identify appellation and ABV…and spell the name of the wine correctly). Yet, they are the ones in three-tier states who are entirely responsible for whether a wine is sold or not.
And wineries want to blame a tasting point for lack of sales? A tasting is a bonus, regardless of the point. It tells the seller what to say to the buyer (whether ontrade, offtrade or consumer).
If wineries want to sell their wine and get a loyal following in return, they should visit the three-tier flyover states, not just SFO, LAX, ORD, JFK, BOS, DFW, MIA and IAD. If you don’t have to change planes, you’re going to the wrong place. There are a lot of thirsty wine lovers out there.