Do Winemakers Check CT?

[Vincent_Fritzsche]

Oh for sure. It drives me crazy when makers can’t accept bad reviews, or want to explain why the reviewer is wrong, etc. I don’t expect everyone to love my wines. I put them out there, let ‘er rip. Makes it especially nice when reviews are positive.

[Otto_Forsberg]

Yes. You are right. Fixed my post to reflect that. Hostile TNs are NOT what I’m aiming for. An always antagonistic reviewer would make for a very awkward critic.

Awkward maybe, but also very entertaining!

Especially if all the follow-ups with the winemakers are published as well.

[Markus_S]

I’ve always wondered this.

I always write my notes very much with fellow consumers in mind, and am lucky because typically I just buy wine from talented winemakers, but am curious if a really unflattering note would likely be seen by a winemaker or not. plus just curious how that information gets used if they do!

Yes, and this board too. If you post a negative note you may become persona non grata faster than a spitball flies out of a 4th grader’s mouth.

[MChang]

I think even European winemakers follow ct and social media. I have a couple burgundy winemakers following my IG.

[HoosJustinG]

Domaine Storage management certainly does. A story for another day, perhaps…

[Adam_Frisch]

Yes I do.

And I also encourage or want people to be truthful. Naturally you want people to like your wines, but ultimately they need to serve other consumers primarily. Also, wines can’t be loved by everyone, so to me its never personal. I can handle it and like the input, it does help me refine the winemaking over time.

On the flip side, I myself often drink wines made by other board members. And sometimes they’re just not in a style I like, but not bad wines. I had one such yesterday from a board favorite. And in those cases I just won’t write a review as it serves no purpose.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

I’ve always wondered this.

I always write my notes very much with fellow consumers in mind, and am lucky because typically I just buy wine from talented winemakers, but am curious if a really unflattering note would likely be seen by a winemaker or not. plus just curious how that information gets used if they do!

Yes, and this board too. If you post a negative note you may become persona non grata faster than a spitball flies out of a 4th grader’s mouth.

Why would you care about becoming persona non grata from a winery making wines you don’t like?

[Markus_S]

I’ve always wondered this.

I always write my notes very much with fellow consumers in mind, and am lucky because typically I just buy wine from talented winemakers, but am curious if a really unflattering note would likely be seen by a winemaker or not. plus just curious how that information gets used if they do!

Yes, and this board too. If you post a negative note you may become persona non grata faster than a spitball flies out of a 4th grader’s mouth.

Why would you care about becoming persona non grata from a winery making wines you don’t like?

More surprised I guess. Sometimes you like others in their lineup but then they feel slighted because you might have left them a bad review. Just surprised how thin-skinned people can be.

[Rodrigo_B]

Yes, and this board too. If you post a negative note you may become persona non grata faster than a spitball flies out of a 4th grader’s mouth.

Why would you care about becoming persona non grata from a winery making wines you don’t like?

More surprised I guess. Sometimes you like others in their lineup but then they feel slighted because you might have left them a bad review. Just surprised how thin-skinned people can be.

I’d reckon a big portion of wine makers have fairly thick skins. No matter how well praised and regarded a producer and their wines may be, not everyone is bound to like it. So unless a winemaker lives in a complete bubble, they are likely no strangers to criticism.

A think how a winemaker receives a review is at the very least in part dependent on the content of the review. If someone just says the wine is sh!t, then it’s hard to gauge what didn’t appeal to that particular drinker. Likewise to receive a negative review from a taster who has praised the wines in the past must also be disheartening and make them wonder what was it about this particular wine that didn’t do it for them.

[Merrill_Lindquist]

I check CT each morning, along with Wineberserkers. Part of my day.

[Corey_N]

On the flip side, I myself often drink wines made by other board members. And sometimes they’re just not in a style I like, but not bad wines. I had one such yesterday from a board favorite. And in those cases I just won’t write a review as it serves no purpose.

I disagree that a review would serve no purpose. I will write an honest review and typically add language like “well made but not my stylistic preference” and I ususally won’t score (other times I don’t score simply because I don’t feel like scoring).

As to the original question, I’m aware of a winemaker contacting a board member and asking him to contact another board member to remove/amend the review that excoriated her wine. I found that sort of interesting.

[Neal.Mollen]

I can’t imagine being in a business, having a consumer-reaction tool like CT and not using it to my benefit. Why the hell wouldn’t you?

I do imagine that producers, being actual human beings, receive unhappy reviews in different ways, and I am sure some will chalk up a negative review to differing tastes etc. But I absolutely would check if I were a producer. MUCH better feedback than the polls/surveys businesses pay consultants to create

[larry_schaffer]

On the flip side, I myself often drink wines made by other board members. And sometimes they’re just not in a style I like, but not bad wines. I had one such yesterday from a board favorite. And in those cases I just won’t write a review as it serves no purpose.

I disagree that a review would serve no purpose. I will write an honest review and typically add language like “well made but not my stylistic preference” and I ususally won’t score (other times I don’t score simply because I don’t feel like scoring).

As to the original question, I’m aware of a winemaker contacting a board member and asking him to contact another board member to remove/amend the review that excoriated her wine. I found that sort of interesting.

I personally don’t post tasting notes on CT but do check it every day. I have never ever asked anyone to alter a review they’ve posted on CT of my wines, but I have had at least one person remove a review in their own based on a conversation.

Adam, I think you can and should post reviews that are less than glowing if you regularly post reviews, regardless if the wine is a board darling or not and regardless of whether it is in your 'preferred style '. By not doing so, I don’t believe you are being as ‘honest’ as you come across as being.

Hope that makes sense. . .

Cheers

[Armando_Basarrate]

For no good reason, it had not occurred to me that winemakers keep tabs on CT notes about their wines. Off the cuff, I would guess that I only write a note half the time or less after consuming a CT inventoried bottle. This new to me knowledge will spur me to write them more often, particularly when there was something particularly good or not so good about a bottle. And even moreso if it is a wine for which there are few notes (which seems to be a chunk of my cellar). I am happy to do that if it provides some feedback value to the winemaker. (Of course, my mediocre palate and wine communication skills may diminish the value.)

As is the case pretty often, WB taught me something today.

[Vincent_Fritzsche]

Thinking again about this subject, it’s true that some online reviews can seem to relish in the perceived awfulness of a wine. Criticism is fine. Piling on or just being over the top is another thing, though of course the line between is blurry. Just sometimes - mostly reading about wine that are NOT mine - I have to wonder what the motivation is, beyond self satisfaction.

Imagine someone reviewing the last hour of your work day, like they were sitting in your office or cube while you’re on Berserkers or Winebid instead of doing what we might expect of someone on the job. “Very scattered stuff, this ‘wine’ alternates between what I expect of a professional and how I imagine a child spends its morning, mindlessly writing on the walls but acting innocent anytime someone walks by. This is not even close to what I expect Pinot noir to be, sloppy winemaking from someone I can only imagine is skating though life hoping no one calls them out. An abomination, 62 points.”

[T_Melloni]

I see winemakers commenting all the time when they see what they think is a note on a bad bottle–and ask people to contact them for a replacement.

Happened to me twice and the wines were replaced. The wines were not noticeably corked but they did taste off from what was expected. My note suggested so. The winemakers/owners contacted me.
The replacement bottles showed the first bottle was in fact flawed.
These two wineries remain on my buy list - not simply for the quality of their wines but for their customer service.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

Yes, and this board too. If you post a negative note you may become persona non grata faster than a spitball flies out of a 4th grader’s mouth.

Why would you care about becoming persona non grata from a winery making wines you don’t like?

More surprised I guess. Sometimes you like others in their lineup but then they feel slighted because you might have left them a bad review. Just surprised how thin-skinned people can be.

I appreciate the honest answer. That sounds like you have specific experiences. We appreciate the truth, even if it’s less than enjoyable.

We’ve switched wines for people based upon CT reviews of our wines they didn’t enjoy. As you said, in a line up there’s often a different wine that may be more to someone’s taste.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

Thinking again about this subject, it’s true that some online reviews can seem to relish in the perceived awfulness of a wine. Criticism is fine. Piling on or just being over the top is another thing, though of course the line between is blurry. Just sometimes - mostly reading about wine that are NOT mine - I have to wonder what the motivation is, beyond self satisfaction.

Imagine someone reviewing the last hour of your work day, like they were sitting in your office or cube while you’re on Berserkers or Winebid instead of doing what we might expect of someone on the job. “Very scattered stuff, this ‘wine’ alternates between what I expect of a professional and how I imagine a child spends its morning, mindlessly writing on the walls but acting innocent anytime someone walks by. This is not even close to what I expect Pinot noir to be, sloppy winemaking from someone I can only imagine is skating though life hoping no one calls them out. An abomination, 62 points.”

I love that analogy…

You know the reviews that pile on really don’t bug me. We had one note that was super negative, beyond just not enjoying the wine. So I looked at their cellar and up front was a lot of Alpha Omega and Aubert. At that point their reaction to Goodfellow made perfect sense, and I took no offense and understood why they were disappointed.

And hyper negative reviews of others wines usually means outlier to me, so I don’t use those notes when buying wine either.

[Mark_Mo_rr_i_ss_ette]

Thinking again about this subject, it’s true that some online reviews can seem to relish in the perceived awfulness of a wine. Criticism is fine. Piling on or just being over the top is another thing, though of course the line between is blurry. Just sometimes - mostly reading about wine that are NOT mine - I have to wonder what the motivation is, beyond self satisfaction.

Imagine someone reviewing the last hour of your work day, like they were sitting in your office or cube while you’re on Berserkers or Winebid instead of doing what we might expect of someone on the job. “Very scattered stuff, this ‘wine’ alternates between what I expect of a professional and how I imagine a child spends its morning, mindlessly writing on the walls but acting innocent anytime someone walks by. This is not even close to what I expect Pinot noir to be, sloppy winemaking from someone I can only imagine is skating though life hoping no one calls them out. An abomination, 62 points.”

The analogy made me chuckle and was well done, but I don’t think it is entirely apt. The relationship of the employee to the employer is one-to-one. The relationship of the winemaker to the wine consumer is one-to-many.

It may be closer to say a stock broker picked one bad stock for a client (all the rest were great), and the client goes on a message board to rant about the terrible stock pick.

Point being, even if the person is being a jerk, there is some value to the community to know they had a bad experience. (None of which is to excuse the piling on…)

[larry_schaffer]

Thinking again about this subject, it’s true that some online reviews can seem to relish in the perceived awfulness of a wine. Criticism is fine. Piling on or just being over the top is another thing, though of course the line between is blurry. Just sometimes - mostly reading about wine that are NOT mine - I have to wonder what the motivation is, beyond self satisfaction.

Imagine someone reviewing the last hour of your work day, like they were sitting in your office or cube while you’re on Berserkers or Winebid instead of doing what we might expect of someone on the job. “Very scattered stuff, this ‘wine’ alternates between what I expect of a professional and how I imagine a child spends its morning, mindlessly writing on the walls but acting innocent anytime someone walks by. This is not even close to what I expect Pinot noir to be, sloppy winemaking from someone I can only imagine is skating though life hoping no one calls them out. An abomination, 62 points.”

The analogy made me chuckle and was well done, but I don’t think it is entirely apt. The relationship of the employee to the employer is one-to-one. The relationship of the winemaker to the wine consumer is one-to-many.

It may be closer to say a stock broker picked one bad stock for a client (all the rest were great), and the client goes on a message board to rant about the terrible stock pick.

Point being, even if the person is being a jerk, there is some value to the community to know they had a bad experience. (None of which is to excuse the piling on…)

And I tend to find the term piling on as it relates to here and on CT more about positive reviews reinforcing certain producers rather than negative ones. Just another way of thinking about things.