Well, here’s an article I’ve been neglecting. I don’t know why, because I love this format. Rambling about various thoughts without getting into extensive details. Easy peasy, right? Well, in a perfect world. I have a lot of thoughts going through my head at the time, so I’ll do my best to make some sense of it.
First, I’ve been ruminating on the proper method for reviewing wines. I’ve seen some reviewers use a Coravin to pour wine into their glass before tasting and reviewing. For those of you not familiar with a Coravin, it’s an apparatus with a needle that you stick into the cork, and pressurized gas that pulls the wine from the bottle into the glass. This is used to preserve the wine in the bottle for a long time because it prevents air from getting in. Since air is both a friend and an enemy of wine, preventing air from reaching the wine prevents it from breathing, which affects the wine’s flavor and aromas. Therefore, the review can be skewed. In my humble opinion, taking the cork out and pouring into the glass is the proper way to review a wine, because that is what the consumer experiences. So, when a sales rep Coravins a wine into my glass, I do not take it for what it is at that point. The wine has to breathe to show its true colors.
I’ve also noticed that some of the wine people on YouTube are focusing on expensive wine. One reviewer, whom I will leave nameless, actually said that there is no Pinot Noir in the lower price range that a wine geek or Pinot lover could appreciate. Really? This statement smacked of wine snobbery. In my opinion, a Pinot Noir fan can love any price point. Screw the snobs who think that if it’s under thirty bucks, it can’t possibly hold up to the higher-priced versions. If you find a Pinto Noir for under twenty bucks that you find outstanding, more power to you. It’s absolutely true that there are great Pinot Noirs out there that are quite expensive. However, this does not mean that you have to spend that much to enjoy a solid, well-made Pinot Noir at a lower price point. Please ignore the snobs, and you will be much happier.
Is high alcohol an indicator of quality, or is it a problem? Recently, I heard a winemaker talk about the alcohol content of their wines. He said they were not ashamed of the alcohol because, to get the flavor profile for their wines, the alcohol needed to be where it landed. Kudos to him for his transparency. I tasted the wines, and they were complex and balanced, despite the higher alcohol level. We should not allow alcohol content to skew our judgment of a wine.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
