Jeb Dunnuck really loves 2018 Napa

I’m a Dunnuck subscriber, and have found our preferences seem similar. I just read through his 2018 Napa report & scores. Man, he really loves these reds!

Almost 30 perfect 100 point scores, and about 40 scores of 99. I like his articles, but these generous scores don’t seem to really help me narrow things down.

Agreed, although he seems to like 2019 even better?

He also tasted more than 1,600 wines for the report, which is hard to imagine.

It’s all perfection. So I guess you just buy on price and be thankful the gods are not particular in who sells the ambrosia.

JD’s report on 2018 Napa was quite comprehensive and interesting, although I did think it was interesting when he said this about quality and consistency:

Edit: I’ve summarized it below instead of copy and paste:

2018 has some variation. Some wines are similar to 2016, while others not. Depending on yields some producers had high quality, while others not. There is some smoke taint in the AVAs with higher elevation. Use some caution when choosing 2018s as there is some variation.

The title could be changed to 'Jeb Dunnuck really loves ________ ’ [snort.gif]

Just kidding, Jeb - nice write ups with some terrific sounding wines.

Cheers!

He also mentioned noticeable smoke taint in many 2018 Howell Mountain wines.

Jeb needs to move the needle to 110 points to differentiate further.

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Could someone summarize (respecting his copyright) what JD says about smoke taint ? My understanding is the major fires in 2018 were further north in Lake and Mendocino counties, and I’ve heard very little about smoke affecting the 2018s from Napa.

Summary is that Smoke Taint usually comes out with age on the wine. There is one AVA that he says you should be cautious about (has “Mountain” in the name). However the more frustrating part is that smoke taint varied from bottle to bottle. So essentially, one producers could have smoke taint in a bottle here and there but it won’t be consistent. Hence why JD says to be cautious when purchasing 2018 from higher elevation areas.

This
I thought Jeb liked everything.
Seriously?
30 perfect scores?

When I alluded to what I thought was his tendency to give a lot of high scores, he actually posted a nice response on here with, as far as I recall, a graph (or maybe just explanation) of his score distribution. Turns out, he doesn’t give an unreasonable % of super high scores, but he tastes a TON of wine, so he does give quite a few, and since I don’t subscribe to him, I tend to only hear of his scores when producers brag about them, or I happen to pay attention to wineries that just tend to get good scores from a lot of people.

Anyway, maybe there’s just a ton of ridiculous 2018 Napa wine out there, especially at the top.

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I mean, let’s do some math.

30 perfect scores out of 1600 wines is less than 2% (1.875 to be exact). In a quality vintage like 2018 in Napa, that’s well within the normal bell curve.

I know some folks get a hard on to rip apart critics scoring on this website, but still, that % seems legit. Now if 10% or 20% were receiving hundos, that’s a different story…

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Jeb likes rich assertive wines. His tastes don’t match mine, but his palate does not match that of of a Nepalese bovine.
It’s useful to get notes from a taster who is consistent and knowledgeable, even if you don’t agree.

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Let’s see what suckling dishes out…

In my entire life I have scored one wine 100. Pretty sure less than five 99s. And here we have 30 perfect scores in one vintage of one appellation, with 40 additional 99s?!? C’mon, maaaaan! LMAO!!

Also: I don’t subscribe to JD, and I’m not much of a CA Cab. guy, so this really doesn’t really affect me at all. Objectively, though, this is pretty absurd.

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They throw all these high scores so they can have a job.

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But has any critic ever gone out of business because their scores were too low?

Like grade inflation at private universities, there is always a perverse incentive to let scores creep up higher and higher. Doing so gets you noticed and keeps you relevant. A critic may not go out of business by being judicious with their scores, but they may not eat as gluttonously as The Suckling if they do.

Do subscriptions increase with increasing scores? I’ve never heard any such fact.

To me, scores are best used not as absolute but as relative to compare different wines and also the same wine across vintages. I also like the tasting notes, drinking window info, general commentary, and small tidbits (watch out for new wine x coming from producer y, etc.). Jeb and others try hundreds more wines from each region and vintage than I ever will, and it’s one factor that helps me decide what I may want to seek out that I haven’t tried before.