It's critic bingo! (not "perfect but perfectly embod[ies] the human spirit")

WINE TALK
21

Why stop with critics? I swear I read the same copy post-after-post from Zachys, Fass, Crush…etc.

22

Yes, Zachy’s could use a thesaurus. As I said above, way too many “patriarchs” (and it’s rarely really what they mean) and “epic.”

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23

For me the one which grates the most is “Goes on and on”, which appears in basically every Wine Spectator review as far as I can tell.

I always think that to be a good wine writer, you need to be able to do the “writing” part as well as the “wine” part. For all I disagree with a lot of what Parker says, I do think he generally writes decent prose, which is more than can be said for some of his illiterate acolytes.

24

Man, missing Klapp…

25

Tough to get rid of it when you get it.

26

I have the world’s worst thesaurus. Not only is it terrible, it’s terrible.

27

Trampling over Vinous to get to Parker….

“Spectacular” has to get a mention, I think.

As does “prodigious” (“a prodigious effort…….”)

And “soars from the glass” (with a tip of the hat to John Stimson above).

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28

Well done. champagne.gif

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29

tumescent


Wait, what?

30

I always found his prose pretty wooden even in its best moments. But Galloni’s looks like it was dictated but not read.

31

I have to write all the content for the winery’s “stuff” (newsletters, website, etc.) Unfortunately we now have people that look at this stuff and edit it before the real world gets to see it. In response to this editing I write elaborate and non-sensical tasting notes that I firmly believe are far more illuminating about the wines than normal blather to which I am mostly restrained. It is exceptionally difficult to expand upon the wine lingo category and therefore difficult not to fall into some lazy traps. In the more boring versions of tasting notes I do attempt to keep the flamboyant patter to a minimum and talk much more in generalized terms that I think people can actually relate to. Then again I am trying to sell wine and not subscriptions so…

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32

Don’t forget “liquor-like”. Perhaps the most telling description warning me to skip this wine and move on to something else. [cheers.gif]

33

For the suckles, it has to be “the greatest since… [roll 3x 20-sided dice and subtract from current vintage] year”

34

Did anyone look at the TN ?

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35

The best expressed and most fun to read TNs I’ve seen, by a good shot, are by David Strange. Just search his posts here (and his blog for more) and you’ll see what I mean.

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36

Unfortunately, Davy pays a heavy price for being able to write his over the top hallucinogenic tasting notes.

I’m happy to dis Antonio and Parker for their tasting notes, but in reality, it’s exceedingly hard to write original notes in the volume that these folks have to produce. I recently wrote some notes on a 10 bottle Thomas vertical. All of the wines were exactly the same, except the vintages were slightly different. It’s tough to write original notes that differentiate the wines in that setting, and that’s only ten wines.

Look at Jim Anderson, who has to write notes about each of the 63 or so bottlings that PG produces each year (I could be off by a few). How can you do that and not repeat yourself, or drift off into some existential shit to distract the reader so he doesn’t notice that you’ve actually left the wine and the planet a while before.

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37

I would love to get to 63. Or 65. Or 67. Or 69…just gotta keep working at it!

The crazy stuff I make up that is now restricted to internal communiques is fun (I think) but somehow works in some way despite the fact that no one sees it. Short of publishing the HS Thompson version of my notes I diligently try to be somewhat boring and factual about fruit intensity, acidity and structural profile. Therefore not a lot of “leaps from the glass” stuff even if I think it does (we all k ow what that is).

38

Actually, I’d just as soon read the HS Thompson internal versions, myself. (OK, some of my last bit of the 2014 Berserker cuvee just leapt from my glass. I do know what that means, so I’m going to bed.)

39

I agree – I’ve never read anything quite like them.

There must be an interesting backstory to him.

40

This is from the 2016 “Mysterious” Pinot Noir bottling notes: This tastes like an early 20th century Chinese haberdasher who is smuggling a rare blue diamond into the Tibetan city of Lhasa.