Wine Scores

So...I look at the wine scores, I find it interesting who knows and loves the wine I'm drinking. But sometimes you get someone writing about the wine who is so up their own butt, they can't taste straight anyway. I don't like that Jay Miller is the only person scoring Oregon wines for the Wine Advocate and erobertparker.com. How can the whole world trust one man. What if he's having an off day, allergic to our Oregon molds, and heaven forbid he have a hang over :) Even the Wine Spectator has individuals critiquing wine in this fashion. I like the idea of a panel of people tasting the wines, every time. I mean, wineries send 2 of each wine to be critiqued, why on earth wouldn't 5-10 people get a taste of it. I know there's a lot out there to taste, but there are a lot of different pallets too.

I think Wine Spectator only likes big TASTING wines. By that I mean they like the taste of the wine when they sip it. But sit down with a 15% alcohol wine and you're loose before the first glass is finished. And don't even think about pairing these wines with food, they will overpower the entire menu. These are usually Cabs, Merlots, and Zins. And don't get me started on the California Pinots they score high. They are all freaking fruit bombs, I can't handle them.

I think the best thing to do is to take each score with a grain of salt. As much as I like to see scores, the best ones for most people are those Wine Enthusiast is known for "Best wines under $15" and other "Best Value" columns.

I like good wine, but I think that I will keep tasting them for myself. I think the "drinking well now" wines are some of the best deals because WS, WE, and WA don't necessarily think highly of them. As for aging, I keep to the wines under 14.5% and I stay clear of Cabs, Merlots, and Zins as much as I can. (Although I found some great Cabs in Aussie last year. I'll talk about them some other time.)

Cheers!