I beg to differ with your comment that “The only objective analysis of wine occurs in a laboratory, using equipment, not people.” The field of sensory science exists because human beings CAN be trained to be objective analytical measuring devices. The wine industry has lagged behind the food industry, health care products and others in utilizing these methods, mainly because wine is perceived as an art form and therefore subjective. There is no piece of wine laboratory equipment that can rate the intensity of “fruit” aroma. A GC-mass spec can measure peaks for various esters, but it will not integrate that information into a general “fruit” aroma like a human is able to do when properly trained and calibrated. Since human beings are variable, the data must be analyzed using analysis of variance techniques to show that results obtained were not due to chance alone. Trained descriptive analysis panelists are not asked their preferences nor are they asked to rate or score the quality of the wine (or other product). One doesn’t ask a gas chromatograph if it liked the wine it analyzed.

As a reviewer, I am essentially a stand-in for informed wine consumers – who are far more likely to enjoy wine in variable company at restaurants, tasting rooms, and dinner parties than alone at a desk. As a consumer representative, I need to know: can the wine can rise above the din of competing claims on consumers’ attention, and leave positive impressions of a specific flavor profile and a winemaker’s particular talents, plus overall satisfaction with quality/price and food/event pairing possibilities?

These are not secondary considerations for wine consumers, and if we eliminate them from our purview as reviewers, we will soon make ourselves obsolete.

That said, I do agree the mayhem of mass tastings like SFChron or Passport days can be exhausting, and I know I can be a tougher critic as a result. But to stay in line with consumer expectations and experience, I participate in mass tastings regularly – and often find pleasant surprises. Wines that quietly transcend setbacks of stumbling crowds and harried pourers are standouts indeed.

Collegially,
Alison Bing

The whole idea of a “focus group” is odious to me (I don’t think you meant to ascribe the “make-everything-to-the-great-middle” connotation by which that term has come to be defined).

I started making wine with the idea that I can’t really “know” the palate of the folks who may buy my wine in the future so my obligation is to hew as closely to my winemaking vision as possible, making the best wine I can, and provide those who are interested the opportunity to taste it.

So far this approach has worked well for Steven Kent and La Rochelle. The fact of the matter is, though, that everyday we have a “focus group” visit us from Noon to 4:30, and it renders its verdict with its wallet.