WA #198

Well the new issue of Wine Advocate has posted but I didn’t see any thread started on it. If there is please merge

There are no 100 point wines which Antonio Galloni had already stated. Many of the scores are IMO on the conservative side. (93 pts Scarecrow )

Several have commented over there with what appears displeasure that some of the darlings didn’t get the kind of scores that might have been anticipated. Many of Antonio’s tasting notes sound better than the numbered score, again I think that comes from him being more conservative. He said he would prefer to establish his credibility with readers first.
Hopefully that doesn’t cause more disappointment than credibility.

Anyone else checking it out ? Opinions?

Clape’s 09 wines got incredibly high scores from Bob, though not to worry… Cornas remains somewhat of a hipster wine for the time being.

Biggest winner:

Dunn

Biggest losers:

Anderson Conn Valley… ouch! (Did Todd do something to piss him off?)
Scarecrow
Buccella
Promontory (Harlan’s latest project lands in the lap of TWA with a resounding thud)
Pride (although only the 2008s were reviewed, could have been one of the 2008 underperformers)
Beringer PR 2008 - (89 points? Really?!? Bracketed by a 97 for the 2007 and a 93 for the 2009)

Rounding out the bottom of the list is an 85-point $140 Cab Franc from Hourglass… GLWT lol…

The 2nd wine from Scarecrow, 2009 Monsieur Ètain, got a 94 from Laube. Maybe WS will make the market on Napa Cabernet.

Tom
Twitter: @NWTomLee

Do tell. What was the score?
As long as you’re checking, how did Schrader do?

Thanks.

I haven’t had these wines but what you are questioning seems like good news to me. It is nice to see some variation in scoring rather settling in a 5 point window for a certain label. Score a wine by this vintage by this vintage instead of giving it credit for past work.

I’ve never thought of his wines as hipster wines. As long as I’ve been into wine this house has had a great rep for old school wines and prices to match. They are awesome with age. If Parker’s score indicate a change in style then that would be most woeful.

For example, 92 on the 2009 Eloge, when Parker’s range was 96-98. Rinse and repeat.

Schrader did fine, but no 100s.

Anyone had Vine Hill Ranch?

So a 92 indicates he’s pissed?

Comparatively. Especially since he explicitly says he preferred the 2009s and 2010s to the 2008s at this winery, which he didn’t rate but as we all know Parker gave giant scores to. So you can extrapolate he might have given the 2008 Cab Reserve maybe an 88 instead of Parker’s 98.

Now I’m completely confused. He gave it a score higher than you expected and THAT means he’s pissed at Todd…WTF? Are Galloni’s scores supposed to be a reflection of Parker’s?

Not sure what you’re talking about Chris, you must have misread my posts.

My biggest reaction is to the prices. Napa is making sure Bordeaux has nothing on them!

Byron

I don’t think I did but ce la vie. Do you remember when 92 points was a good score?

Not sure why one would think Galloni more conservative. He consistently lavishes very high scores on a number of Italian wines. I think we are seeing some balance here…and I say great.

No.

If you like the wines of ACV, then I think you should see these downgrades as “good” news – surely the prices will be discounted on retailers shelves…I remember reading some pretty “confident” words from their sales manager re: controlling the prices that retailers charge for their wines (i.e. making the deep discounts prohibitive) a few months ago on squires’ board, and that was on the back of RP’s 96 - 98 score for the '08 Eloge. A bit more difficult to talk tough about making retailers stick to the msrp of $95 when that same wine has been downgraded to 92.

Brian