You mean, you won’t come and see me……

You break my heart man……

Got your point though and this is why we have such an extensive website.

Nico, of course, is the winemaker at Pacific Rim.

Both of those people, very successful and respected winemakers, love their own children (wines) and want us to love them as they do. My kids (not wines) are too old for me to write you a treatise about them, but I can write you a long story about my six-year old granddaughter. Or I can show you my slides.

But, either way, that is more information than you need to know when reading through several hundred reviews of wines. That it, it is more than most consumers want to know in that context. If Steve or I tried that–writing 500 word essays on each of several hundred wines, the readers would get a book in the mail, not a magazine.

Now, when it comes to specifically enjoying a bottle of Davenport Pinot or Peter Merriam Cab Franc or Pacific Rim Riesling, we would be all ears for the kind of information that Margaret and Nico have to provide. And, there is a place for that information. Put it on the back label. Write your short story there. Put it on your website. Put a small brochure attached to the neck of every bottle.

But, please, and I admire you both, do not ask me, or any other writer to do your PR job for you. We are wine reviewers, not cheerleaders. Getting that longer story in the hands of the folks who are sitting down to enjoy a bottle of your wine is your job.

And while Steve started this topic with a visit to K-J, he clearly has neither the intentiion nor the ability to visit 3000 wineries in CA or 2000 negotiant bottlers on any kind of a regular basis. No one does or could, and so while there may be some value to wineries to introduce us to their children (wines) first hand, it is just not in the cards for more than a handful of producers a year. As to whether those visits should lead directly to tasting notes or just to learning, well, that is a judgment that Steve makes on the side of writing and I make on the side of not writing, just learning. No real rights or wrongs, I guess, but it is not the way that most wine reviews done in substantial numbers can come about.

This topic is so interesting that I just have to reply from a winemaker’s perspective. First, I agree wholeheartedly with Charlie’s comments and the comments that concern the great subjectivity surrounding the judging of wine in general.

It’s valuable to taste with the winemaker, in the cellar, if possible. Consider how well we are acquainted with our wines and our vineyards. We see them begin at budbreak in March, through set, veraison, harvest, fermentation, malolactic fermentation, racking, barrel aging. I feel my wines are my partners in a great experiment. In some vintages they are better partners than in others when we have weather surprises to overcome. Winemaker’s add this depth to a tasting experience. If you are in the cellar, it’s easier to make a point about a particular wine in bottle if you can compare it with the current wine in barrel.

Another point: I always want a critic to tell me what they honestly think about my wines. It’s important to get feedback from folks who are exposed to a lot of different wines. It’s also important for winemakers to educate critics about new techniques/re-educate about basics of winemaking, especially so with the new crop of young writers and bloggers.