Readers Questions & TORB's Answers
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008
Wine Disposal Question (19July)
I emailed you some time ago re Heritage Fine Wines and my brothers debacle about getting his wine back from them after their demise. Well he finally has his wine being shipped at the moment. He will get about 600 bottles in total so tht's better than nothing. Any ideas on how he could sell off some of it?
He has a heap of Kalleskes Nefertiti, around 200 - 300 bottles I think and a heap of another Kalleske Shiraz. Any ideas helpful. I though of an auction house or similar. Might even sell a few dozen through ebay. Should be nice drops.
TORB Responds
You need to be careful about this. Many of the investors are starting to get
their wine and if everyone starts to sell via auction, the auction market will
be choked with excessive inventory, and that will result in very low prices. To
make matters worse, many of the investors have the same brands. I suggest that
your brother:-
a. Sees if any friends etc are prepared to do a swap of say a dozen bottles of
wine from their cellar (or even new purchases) for your brother's wine. Value
discrepancies could be adjusted by changing the number of bottles, e.g. 12 for 9
etc.
b. See if he can contact any other Heritage investors who may also be interested
in swapping.
c. Auction is an alternative but they cost the vendor between about 5% and
$13.5%.
d. You need a liquor license to sell on ebay, so that is not an option.
From Jeff Pitts who lives in Bunbury WA
This is not really a question but I am posting Jeff's comments and my answers as
readers may find them interesting.
"After we walked out from Ashbrook, Davo said, “She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about but you have to admire the 110% confident manner in which she expressed her opinions.” Very true, she was a real character and a delightful person who would have little
trouble selling Bibles to the Gideons."
Now, I visit Ashbrook a couple of times a year, ostensibly to buy their semillon, whereas my wife knows that it's just to visit the young lady you've mentioned. As you've rightly explained, she is a honey and has, over the past 8 or 10 years, moved from label licker to running the cellar door and whatever else is thrown at her. She is a real asset to the business.
My point is this! Think it if it makes you feel good, but why write such a deprecating remark about someone who is so good with customers and who is so keen to increase her skills? How do you think she'd feel if she read your comment? Inspired to welcome the next group of wine aficionados? I think not! What she'd be excused for thinking is that you're a patronising prick, although she wouldn't think it because she's too polite. I'm not though. Rick, you often complain about the poor quality of cellar door staff you encounter on your travels and I've felt the same about some that I've met. But having come across "a vivacious and lovely young lady who was bubblier than a bottle of Bollinger", but who, in your opinion, doesn't know as much about wine tasting as you and your mates is not a reason to publicly lampoon her in an article which will be read nationally. I think you owe her (and your readers ) an apology and should edit the article accordingly! I'll wait to see if you've got the cohunas. I feel better now.
I'll still look forward to your articles.
TORB Responds:
Firstly, if you feel that strongly about it; I am happy to post your comments on
my site.
Secondly, the vast majority of what I said was very complimentary.
I don't remember the exact exchanges that took place but at more than one point
comments were made of a fairly basic nature about wine. I am not talking about
stuff that needs advanced wine knowledge to understand, it was something that
you would expect anyone who had a basic understanding of wine to have, and she
had no idea what we were talking about. It happened not once, but twice and
judging by what she was telling us after that, it was clear she really didn’t
have much idea.
Now here is the important bit. Whose fault is that? It's certainly not her
fault; as in all these cases and there are far too many of them, it is the very
poor management of the winery that is not even providing rudimentary training
for their staff.
It's exactly the same problem as staff who check a bottle of wine, pronounce it
fit and its rank with cork taint and then pour it. On many occasions, in tour
diaries and in articles, I have had serious shots at winery management (in
general) about the lack of training for their staff. And for the record, I will
be aiming both barrels of a shot gun at winery management (in the final chapter)
about a number of things, and this is one of them.
Wineries are businesses; employing staff to man the cellar door that are family,
neighbours, friends or people that have stuck labels on bottles is fine but they
should receive some wine education. If you had a jewellery shop would you get
your bubbly sister-in-law who can't tell the difference between a diamond and a
piece of pretty glass to serve your valuable customer?
I make absolute no apology for my comments; it is just as valid to criticise a
cellar door staff member for not knowing what they are talking about as it to
say that a winemaker is making wine that is poor. An apology would be due if I
had made a negative comment that was personal, but the comment was not attacking
the cellar door staffer. It was criticizing their professional ability to do
their job. And finally let me repeat, it is probably not their fault, it is
usually the fault of their employer, who has the responsibility to train their
staff so that they can do the job at a reasonable level.
From Ben Allen
Ben asks: I have a question regarding the issue of the drinking windows. I fully appreciate that it is very much a matter of personal taste and that one person's aged wine is another man's man's muddy water. However I frequently try wines that are well within their drinking window as suggested by the likes of Jeremy Oliver only to find that they are oxidised and fruitless. Far to many, in my opinion, to be put down to bottle variation or poor cellaring.
For instance, take the Dalwhinnie Moonambel Cab Sav 2004
-
Jeremy Oliver suggests best drinking from 2016 to 2024
-
Tyson Stelzer suggests best drinking from 2009 to 2019
-
Campbell Mattinson suggests best drinking from 2006 to 2014
So three well known scribes are variously suggesting that you can start drinking it immediately, in about three years and in about ten years ! The same three scribes are suggesting that the wine should ideally be drunk within 8 years, 13 years, 18 years. The biggest issue though is that Mr Mattinson would have finished the wine in his cellar whilst Mr Oliver would not have even tried his first bottle yet.
Now I normally am happy to look at the available advice and make my mind up as to when I might start my first bottle and then judge future drinking from there. But for a wine that costs $40 per bottle, the chances are that I will only have 3 to 6 in my cellar - so I must find ways to reduce the level of waste from opening a bottle too early/too late."
TORB Responds: The three scribes you have used are an interesting combination and here is my
take on the situation.
When it comes to assessing drinking windows, there is no substitute for
experience. Tyson has not been drinking wine for terribly long and whilst he is
unbelievably enthusiastic and may have a good palate, he doesn’t have a huge
depth of experience.
Campbell is a mate of mine and I really like the guy; he is a journalist by
training who loves wine and has only been seriously getting into it not all that
much longer than Tyson, but he is doing it full-time and has been doing so for a
number of years. From what I have been able to see, Campbell has a better palate
than Tyson, and probably knows more about tasting wine, but relatively speaking
he still does not have a huge depth of experience.
For quite some time, I thought Jeremy Oliver’s drinking windows were
ridiculously long but the more I look at them, the more I agree with them. That
does not necessarily mean he will always get them right, but in the main, I
think he is pretty accurate.
As to why you have found so many oxidised and fruitless, I’m willing to bet that
in many of these cases a number of things may be contributing, including cork
taint, leaky corks, or less than ideal storage conditions (and those poor
storage conditions may be before you buy the wine; but that's another story.) If
your cellar is not air-conditioned, or if passive with anything but minimal
daily temperature fluctuations; your wine is going to mature much faster than
optimal cellaring conditions.
If you would have compared Halliday’s drinking windows to Oliver’s and used that
as your example, my answer would have been, whilst Halliday has a huge amount of
experience, (unfortunately) he looks at so many wines in a year that in a lot of
cases, not much time is devoted to each wine. It is for that reason, that I
believe Oliver to be more accurate than Halliday.
From Glenn Joseph
"Your review of Three Hills 2002 Shiraz
confuses me,
it reads
'The bouquet shows excellent complexity and is very
attractive. Very-fine drying tannins and pure fruit are well-balanced but the
acid is lively on the finish. Plums, blackberry, olive and a touch of herbs have
an off-sweet flavour profile. Ample-weight with a firm consistency, solid and
tight structure; the wine needs a few years to build complexity. Quite a
well-made wine, but frankly it just didn't do it for me. Rated as Highly
Recommended with ** for value.'
I would be interested to know how you can highly recommend a wine that didn't do it for you. I am an avid follower of your site and love reading your tour diaries but thought that this review sent out mixed signals."
TORB Responds: The question you asked is a very valid one. When assessing a wine, a good judge will try and put their personal preferences aside and judge the inherent qualities of the wine. In reality, whether a judge likes or dislikes a wine should be immaterial, unfortunately in many instances far too many people rate wines based on likes and dislikes, rather than the quality of the wine in front of them. Whilst I'm human and do it too, I try and minimise my personal likes and dislikes. For example I hate heavily charred oak in wine, and when I find it, I call it out clearly so that readers know of my prejudice and can to some extent make allowances for it. There was nothing wrong with the Three Hills Shiraz, but from a personal perspective, I did not like the flavour profile and that was why “it didn't do it for me.” I hope this explains what appears to be a dichotomy.