Very confused by this comment. As far as I’m aware, Tanzer never published notes from blind tastings…
BTW, the only publication that “claims” to taste blind is Wine Spectator, and FWIW, it’s fool-hardy. I know maybe a handful of people who are exceptional blind tasters. It’s easily the hardest, most humbling part of wine.
Yeah but Ian it also depends on what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to guess some wine w/out any clue, that’s nice but that’s not what the reviewers are doing. At least one would hope it isn’t. They’re trying to review what’s in the glass, away from the winery with the beautiful scenery. I’ve visited many regions and I’m sure you have too, where you taste wine with the winemaker and it’s nice and you think the wine is decent and maybe you’ll buy it. And you do the calculation in your head as to what you could put it on the shelf for and whether people will like the second sip as much as the first. Then you taste it again at home, away from that environment, and you think it’s hot, slightly medicinal, and maybe no better than something else on the shelf for less.
There’s nothing incompatible about blind tasting and also writing long articles about a producer, region, and grapes. One can vividly describe the history of a region, the wine making philosophy of a producer, and the care with which the vines are tended. And then one can give an assessment of the wine in the glass without that having an influence. Ultimately, you’re selling wine to the customer, not the back story.
As to whether the Vinous subscription is worth it, that all depends on the reader. But Bill is right about one thing:
As it turns out, there ARE no editors in the wonderful world of wine reviewing.
Great writing is made by great editing. Some people can edit themselves fairly well. Others need outside help.
Tanzer would publish the results of the Executive Wine Seminars which were done blind.
I don’t think being a good blind taster, and rating wines blind are mutually exclusive. That’s where you and I differ.
Keep in mind, I’m a retailer. Simply b/c I go somewhere doesn’t mean that I have to love the wine or buy it. I always have to separate that fact. The only time that a bad buying decision was made on a trip was after a BIG lunch, we bought quite a bit of a semi-sweet red wine because we saw it as an emerging demographic, and we were clearly drunk on Uruguayan beef when we made that buy. Ironically, it wasn’t that winery that served us the lunch where we made that buy, it was the NEXT stop. We joke about it now…then, not so much…
Those notes were published by Howard Kaplan of EWS.
Tanzer and Reynolds made it worthwhile for me and the addition of Schildknecht put it way over the top.
WA, not Tanzer, published EWS results until Parker severed his relationship with EWS…
/189/Stephen%20Tanzer’s%20International%20Wine%20Cellar.pdf]
Kaplan and Millman ran the show. Parker did tastings for them occasionally, but ultimately refused to taste blind. WA published the results for years in a special EWS corner of the website. All were purged from the website under the new regime. Tanzer did a couple of tastings post-Parker, before EWS and IWC both decided to fold. Here is an old eRP screenshot:
“Executive Wine Seminars hosts public tastings in New York, usually done “blind” from pristinely stored bottles purchased at retail. They focus on the world’s finest and most desirable wines. eRobertParker.com is pleased to be the exclusive web repository for the results of these tastings.”
And get off of my lawn…
Does a Vinous subscription come with digital access to the Napa Valley AVA maps or are those for physical copy purchase only?
Purely Domestic Wine Report. A full page write up on each winery each vintage. He tends to score very high. His detail in the write ups is much more accurate than his higher scores.
The maps are not included in a subscription.
I would suggest you consider other subscriptions as well/instead, based upon your interests. Jancis Robinson’s site is very broad in its outlook, covering the whole world of wine over time. The Wine Doctor is specifically focused on the Loire and Bordeaux. As you are in Norway you may have easier access to European wines than Californian.
Another plus for Vinous is its integration with Cellartracker. I rarely use vinous.com to look up a wine. Pull it up on CT and you can see the vinous scores as well as recent CT tasting notes.
From what you have said Vinous would seem to be the best overall choice. They put out a lot of content and cover all regions well, except Germany.
Before everyone starts to criticize.
In the last 12-24 months I have subscribed to Vinous, Parker, Jancis, Purely Domestic Wine, Gilman, and Alice Feiring so I do have a good cross comparison. I have also been a Burghound subscriber in the past.
Any funnily enough the most useful publication to me is Mosel Fine Wine and its free!
Andres I’ll PM you a discount code for Vinous I recently used, might make the decision easier if you are on the fence.
I have subs to Wine Advocate, Vinous and Jeb Dunnuck. I use all 3, it really depends on what regions/wines you are interested in. Vinous and Wine Advocate has good general coverage, JD is more focused and goes deeper, as it happens in areas im currently purchasing a lot of and interested inn. Good to cross reference between critics and sites.
I like how Vinous and Jeb Dunnuck integrates their scores with cellar tracker. Wine Advocate doesn’t allow that.
David Rayer is a great taster! And has an enviable cellar: last time he came for dinner, he brought a 1955 Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre, best wine from that château I ever tasted.
Is there a forums section on Vinous ? I checked under the Your Say tab and it looks like there should be but I don’t see anything ? Thought I’d ask here before pinging support.
There is but it is not supported by all browsers. I can’t get it on Safari but can get it on Chrome. Support said something about a privacy layer that Apple put in. Response didn’t make me feel good about their privacy but I didn’t really understand why it was happening and if it is really an issue.
First off Vinous is well worth it. Secondly there is a forum under Your Say. There has been some compatibility issues, mainly with Apple products, but it’s an easy fix. James is the IT guy there and is very responsive and helpful.