"The list of influencers is non-exhaustive, but has never ceased to grow in the past few years press journalists and independents, bloggers, masters of wine (MW) – many legitimate or not, who claim membership of the 'influential' circle."Ĭritic A is described as possessing integrity, discretion and objectivity. The criteria on which this ranking is based are the following: tasting aptitude in recognizing qualities and faults/defects, neutrality, integrity, independence, knowledge of wineries, interest in the vintage conditions and the technical choices of the vignerons, en primeur and en livrable tastings, aptitude to reconsider en primeur scores. "This evaluation rests on an analysis of scores, comments and the tasting of wines from a decade of en primeur and en livrable tastings. This exercise requires other essential skills that many of them seem to be short of. It's not enough to have a polished rhetoric and apply a score out of 20 or 100 points.
The notes and scores are often incoherent and senseless, to the point that one can ask if some of them really know how to taste wines.
"Each year in spring, during en primeur, wines are tasted, analyzed and scored by critics. We are not identifying the author or the critics, as we don't want anyone to lose their job and we'd rather not be sued for defamation by outraged critics unable to take the heat when it is applied to them. Wine-Searcher has verified the authenticity of the letter, so it is not simply a concocted internet meme or fake social media sensation it's an actual communication sent by a member of the French wine industry to a colleague. Some of the critics do well in the assessments, but there are some brutally direct comments about the integrity of others and many are accused of offering better scores to producers who are willing to do a little more for the critic in return.
In the letter, the author gives an amusing series of "tasting notes" on several high-profile wine critics, and awards them scores based on their perceived performance. Parker and the Pope – the Infallibility FallacyĪnd it must be especially galling when a major occasion brings hordes of critics and "wine professionals" to town, all of them looking for the best in wine, food and accommodation, while simultaneously publicly slamming the best efforts of some of the very people offering their hospitality.Ī fascinating insight into the anguish felt by many producers can now be revealed, after an extraordinary letter from a severely disgruntled member of the producer end of the market was made public this week on social media. And then some jumped-up wine critic comes along and tells them exactly how wrong they've got it. They harvest these Cabernet or Pinot grapes, spend weeks meticulously and painstakingly turning them into precious wine, which they then leave ageing until it is ready to meet its public. They slave away, day and night, tending their vineyards in Burgundy and Bordeaux in order to produce the best grapes they can.
You have to feel for wine producers sometimes. | Beneath the suavity and elegance of Bordeaux, passions run deep.