Maybe I don’t fully understand what AFWE really means, but what is the appeal of Anti-Flavor?? I think I like flavor. Don’t most people want flavor? Or do they prefer wine with no flavor? I’m not saying jump on the latest Napa wine of the year for $200+, but please educate me on the AF.
afwe is not literal… but more so a different profile which includes perhaps more non fruit components
It’s a badge of honor, referencing a past Parker comment.
Bruce, it doesn’t mean bland wine. It means wines with a more reserved profile which embrace terroir influence and subtlety instead of those “hedonistic rockstar” high octane fruit bombs.
If you want to experience the difference using California Cab, get a bottle of 2012 Caymus 40th Anniversary Cab and a bottle of 1995 Arrowood Reserve Speciale. Or if you’re in the NY / NJ / PA metro area, maybe we can get Jay Hack to bring one of his palate burners to compare to something in my cellar (like the aforementioned 95 Arrowood or maybe a 2001 Chateau Montelena).
+1 to the previous posts.
The AF was a Parker comment on a less hedonistic style of wines that he didn’t really subscribe to. Most AFWE producers don’t really buy into RP and take the moniker, as noted above, as a badge of honor.
I usually state it as my preference for seeing terroir. That the international style is too uniform for my taste, but Dennis post reminded me that I also just prefer drinking AFWE wines.
Regarding terroir, think of the fruit in a wine as being the hot fudge sauce on a Sunday, and the ice cream as the expression of terroir. If the ice cream is vanilla then you might as well load it on. If the ice cream is something unique and delicious, then less fudge makes sense. This is just my $.02
Blah blah blah
You AFWE guys just like bland boring wine, its OK to admit it
AFWE is Grace Kelly.
The fruit bombers are Anna Nicole Smith.
I’d just observe that some of the balanced Cabs like Arrowood’s Speciale can still gather Parker acclaim. Just about every vintage has gotten somewhere between 90-95 pts from him.
When I think of AFWE prototypes - I tend to think of wines picked when the fruits still show some bright acidity. But sometimes those traits which makes a wine more palatable at the table can hurt in a big panel tasting when bigger is better.
AFWE is Hedy Lamarr.
The fruit bombers are Mamma June.
AFWE is William F Buckley.
Fruit bombers are Donald Trump.
Anton is drinking a Saxum right now.
IMO this clip from Albert Brooks’s quarter century old “Defending Your Life” illustrates well, even if its subject is food and not wine.
tastes like horseshit = AFWE
tastes like grape/berry/cherry juice + oak + vodka = hedonistic
AFWE has no precise definition but I’m not sure I agree that just about any CA cab - or pinot or chardonnay for that matter - merits the label. And even a blueberry-everclear-barrique-smoothie kinda guy wouldn’t find all of them bland and boring: some would provoke disgust.
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Our olfactory sense can potentially distinguish about a trillion distinct scents. If we are blasted with a few overpowering impressions, the game is temporarily over. AFWE wines tease out our senses, giving a kaleidoscope of olfactory images. Smell is the most evocative recall of past experience (ask Proust). Anti-flavor really means pro-culture.
P Hickner
Yes, yes we do. We like it cheap too, so thank you for that 
That’s because our palates have not been scorched by moonshine-like levels of alcohol and …
… wait a sec … Uh, I drink Port so I’ll shut up now.
Fair enough. They just don’t get the 96+ scores of the explosive Cabs he seems to prefer.
FIFY.
Take THAT fruit bombardiers! 
Most definitely true
Peter may I steal this for our promotional materials?
2004 Domus Aurea cab, actually!
Nice balance, primary and secondary flavors…in the world of women of science, more Marie Curie than Jenny McCarthy.
I don’t think that AFWE is generally used in WB threads as a hateful label.
I think there are plenty of self-identitied AFWE folks who embrace the term as a “FU” to Parker’s insulting rhetoric.
Does that mean that there needs to be a rivalry here? Don’t confuse the friendly jabs with Mortal Kombat!!
If anyone has a copyright on forum material, it would have to be Todd.
Anyway, to make a travel analogy, ripe and heavily oaked wines are the analog to travel resorts that pamper and indulge. Spotless beaches, spas, soft linens. AFWE wines take you to the people and how they live, work, and experience the world. What you learn is limited with the former, infinite with the latter.
P Hickner