So who do you believe?

No doubt many of you may read wine reviews hoping to be able to pick up a few good tips to help you in the elusive search for that great bottle of wine that you can afford without having to sell the kids. (Grin) This weeks missive is designed to give you a few tips to help you achieve that objective.

The problem is we are all different. What James Halliday may think is great wine, Jeremy Oliver may think is ordinary. What Winestate may judge to be worthy of *****, Winewise may think is just “Acceptable.” Confusing isn’t it? So whom should you believe? The answer believe it or not is “you”, because only you know what you like and dislike about wine.

So how do you get past the confusion to be able to make up your own mind. There are two different facets to this situation. The first is to be able to work out which of the writers palates are closest to your own. For example Winewise seems to have developed a phobia against oak in recent times and more and more I am finding my palate and theirs are diverging, so I am paying less and less attention to their ratings and comments.

On the other hand I generally find James Halliday pretty close to the mark, and my tastes mirror his in many ways. In many cases what he finds attractive in a wine so do I, but even here exceptions arise. A great example was the “98 Wirra Wirra The Angelus” which Halliday waxed lyrical about in his Top 100 and rated at 95 points.  When I tried it whilst I could see the technical brilliance and perfection of the wine, I found it “as boring as bat shit.”

So who’s wrong and who’s right? Well it doesn’t matter! Mr Halliday certainly couldn’t give a continental fig about my opinion and whilst I respect his, if I am going to drink the bottle only I can tell if I like it or not. And that’s where the second facet of this equation comes in. You need to be able to read the reviewers comments, have an appreciation for the styles of wines they like and dislike, be able to understand and interpret the meaning of the words used, and finally read between the lines and what they don’t say about the wine.

Let me give you some examples of what certain words can mean to different people.

Elegant – to people who like big wines it can be a negative, meaning weak and pissy. To someone who loves mid weight wines it’s a compliment meaning classy and refined.

Inoffensive – To many it will mean it’s an enjoyable wine, to others it means without much character.

Crowd Pleaser – To some it means it’s a good quality wine they enjoy, to others it means it’s a higher quality formula wine lacking in varietal definition.

Block Buster – To big wines lovers the descriptor is positive; those that like more subtle wine would find this descriptor negative.

Its up to you to work out what all these words mean to you. Its not difficult, just look at the tasting note when you are drinking the wine and think out what has been said versus the way you would describe the wine.

In terms of what’s not written in the reviews being important, if you watch you favourite reviewers closely and understand their style, you will soon know how to read between the lines and work out the value of the missing information. It’s just a matter of practice.

Cheers

Ric