Comments on: Trust Your Tongue – The Only Wine and Spirit Critic That Matters Is You http://www.tonygreenberg.com/2010/07/03/trust-tongue/ The Technologist's Guide to Trust, Tech, Wine, and Spirits Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:17:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: WineHarlots http://www.tonygreenberg.com/2010/07/03/trust-tongue/comment-page-1/#comment-558 WineHarlots Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:32:29 +0000 http://www.tonygreenberg.com/?p=446#comment-558 Nice! We say relax and enjoy it -- it's just juice. Nice!
We say relax and enjoy it — it's just juice.

]]> By: jeff smith http://www.tonygreenberg.com/2010/07/03/trust-tongue/comment-page-1/#comment-543 jeff smith Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.tonygreenberg.com/?p=446#comment-543 It is almost impossible to discuss wine nowadays without acknowledging Robert Parker, especially in the context of the democratization of taste that your blog addresses. Your Taste (and, for that matter, CellarTracker, the Parker chat board, etc.) is, to some degree, a reaction to his monolithic influence. On balance, he has been great for wine. While many think his numbering system is too simplistic, he has, without question, brought the overall quality of wine up around the world, and has introduced more people to more wines from every corner of the globe than anyone else. He is wine’s most powerful advocate. However. I am always reminding clients that the scores he gives wine are only his opinion. I had dinner with Christian Moueix once. I congratulated him on getting another great review from Parker. He said, “I hate that shit. It’s like me telling you how much you enjoyed your dinner.” And there is a lot of truth to that. In a very literal sense, we all drank the Kool-Aid with some of the wines he gave high scores to, especially when the QPR was so out of whack: Turley, Pax, Australia, Reignac. The list goes on and the debate continues . However. On the cover of every issue of The Wine Advocate he states, in bold faced type: However, there can never be any substitute for your own palate nor any better education than tasting the wine yourself. The thing about Taste is that many wine collectors, especially those getting into the game, take a shotgun approach. They buy this and that, often because of a shelf talker anointing the wine with 91 points. There is no, or little, sense of direction. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. At some point, they are exposed to more and different kinds of wine and a taste profile begins to emerge. Out with the merlot, in with the pinot, or something like that. My pitch to clients is that the wine you’ve got helps to define you, much in the same way as the pictures you hang on your walls—they are reflections of your taste. The bottles are like ridges of a fingerprint. You might apply some kind of algorithm to this, I just look at the list and see certain things: when they made their money, how much they are invested in wine as a hobby, and so on. But the main thing that comes from this is: Where do you want to go from here? I try to keep my own taste out of it, but push people to explore the areas that they show interest in. Follow your bliss, but do it in a more logical, focused, strategic way. New client, major industrialist, says, “You wouldn’t know it, but my interest is in Bordeaux and Burgundy.” Well, how ‘bout you buy some of that? Seems simple enough. The guy is very, very smart, highest level govt security clearance, but he doesn’t buy the kind of wine he likes. Get rid of the shotgun and pick up a rifle. Jeff Smith Carte du Vin It is almost impossible to discuss wine nowadays without acknowledging Robert Parker, especially in the context of the democratization of taste that your blog addresses. Your Taste (and, for that matter, CellarTracker, the Parker chat board, etc.) is, to some degree, a reaction to his monolithic influence. On balance, he has been great for wine. While many think his numbering system is too simplistic, he has, without question, brought the overall quality of wine up around the world, and has introduced more people to more wines from every corner of the globe than anyone else. He is wine’s most powerful advocate.

However.

I am always reminding clients that the scores he gives wine are only his opinion. I had dinner with Christian Moueix once. I congratulated him on getting another great review from Parker. He said, “I hate that shit. It’s like me telling you how much you enjoyed your dinner.” And there is a lot of truth to that. In a very literal sense, we all drank the Kool-Aid with some of the wines he gave high scores to, especially when the QPR was so out of whack: Turley, Pax, Australia, Reignac. The list goes on and the debate continues .

However.

On the cover of every issue of The Wine Advocate he states, in bold faced type: However, there can never be any substitute for your own palate nor any better education than tasting the wine yourself.

The thing about Taste is that many wine collectors, especially those getting into the game, take a shotgun approach. They buy this and that, often because of a shelf talker anointing the wine with 91 points. There is no, or little, sense of direction. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. At some point, they are exposed to more and different kinds of wine and a taste profile begins to emerge. Out with the merlot, in with the pinot, or something like that. My pitch to clients is that the wine you’ve got helps to define you, much in the same way as the pictures you hang on your walls—they are reflections of your taste. The bottles are like ridges of a fingerprint. You might apply some kind of algorithm to this, I just look at the list and see certain things: when they made their money, how much they are invested in wine as a hobby, and so on. But the main thing that comes from this is: Where do you want to go from here? I try to keep my own taste out of it, but push people to explore the areas that they show interest in.

Follow your bliss, but do it in a more logical, focused, strategic way. New client, major industrialist, says, “You wouldn’t know it, but my interest is in Bordeaux and Burgundy.” Well, how ‘bout you buy some of that? Seems simple enough. The guy is very, very smart, highest level govt security clearance, but he doesn’t buy the kind of wine he likes. Get rid of the shotgun and pick up a rifle.

Jeff Smith
Carte du Vin

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