Stop rating wine or read wine review, maybe it is time that you make up your own mind
What perfection really means to me and why I prefer a wine that holds a special place in my journey rather a wine that is 100 points.
If you ever get serious about wine you will come across the name of Robert M. Parker Jr, an american wine reviewer and without a doubt the most influential wine critic in the world. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, he felt in love with wine on a trip to Alsace in the early 70s’ and began writing about wine, designing along the way the 100 points wine rating system that dictate quality and prices of wine around the world. The system is simple and easy to understand, and that is why it is so popular.
But the moment this 100 points review system was created, was also the moment when passion was lost in the world of wine. Consumer began to follow review, forgot about their own palate and now wine prices are dictate by demand and offer, more or less in the same way in which the market is pricing shares or commodities in the stock exchange. I remember when I was a kid I made a killing thanks to one of those review. I had bought a box of Solaia 1997, a Supertuscan made by Antinori. It was in 2001, I paid around 54.000 lire each bottle, which for a 16 years old kid were a lot of money. Then Wine Spectator named it ‘Wine of the year’, and the price skyrocketed to around 400–450 thousands lire in a matter of hours. A box of six bottles went from just over 300 thousand lire to 2,7 million lire in a matter of hours. And that is when I started to doubt the system.
Some say that it was all a big marketing campaign. You see, Solaia was the ‘little brother’ of the more popular Sassicaia, a wine that has significantly changed the luck of Tuscan’s wine and their popularity with international customers. But Solaia was not exactly the most popular of the ‘Supertuscan’, it was considered the Supertuscan produced by the largest wine producer in Italy, Antinori. Ironically, Wine Spectator was not a very popular wine magazine in Italy, and by writing that review and naming Solaia 1997 best red wine in the world, both companies gained exposure in markets that they desperately wanted to break into. Antinori on a global market, Wine Spectator in Italy.
My problem is not with the scoring system however, it is with our lack of passion and consumer’s own opinion. You see, I have no problem with Parker and his 100 points review system, although I believe it overlooks so many of the important aspect of a wine. My problem is with the consumers, and why we feel we have a need for wine reviewers to guide our purchases, at the expense of our passion and our own palate. I understand it is important to know if a certain wine is too ripe, too tannic or simply out of balance in a certain vintage. But that is how far I care about a wine review. I want to have my opinion about a wine, not blindly following the trend of the market or the opinion of another person. Shouldn’t we be able to decide what is good according to our palate? Shouldn’t we seek the memories we are so fond of, and ignore the simple perfection of a wine because according to certain standards dictated by the market? Who and how decided what we should seek onto a glass of wine?
To make it simple, I will try to explain you this paradigm with bacon. You see, I hate bacon. I don’t like the smell, I don’t like the texture even if it is crispy, and I find it very hard to digest. Yet most of my friends love bacon. My opinion is not popular with my friends, but why would I eat something that does not appeal me a tiny little bit? And this translates to the wine world too. I am not the biggest fan of Bordeaux either. Some of the most renowned and celebrated labels in the world, I find them average. I understand their structure and complexity, I can definitely understand why people get excited about them, but they simply don’t rock my boat. If I get a glass of Margaux, I am not so keen on a second one.
I don’t get those emotion when I drink those wine and I would never ever drink a wine to belong to a certain class. The way wine transmits emotions to me is thorough my childhood memories, through remembering walking in the vineyard and visiting a small cellar, not sitting around a table with 25 other banker and drinking a Latour ’67. I do not need them to tell me that the ’67 was so much more remarkable than the ’64, and it has a better longevity. I was not around on either vintages, and there are no memories around those bottles for me. I would rather prefer a bottle of the 2015 Ramie’, a wine that I cannot legally commercialize as I did not have a legal cellar in the year I first produced it. It is a wine that is full of defects, but defects in wine are at times expression of something that followed an organic path and that man did not try to control, and I love that… all those little defects and imperfections are there for a reason and I love that.
That wine, represent so much to me that no matter what, would be always as valuable as any Petrus or La Tache. It was a struggle all the way through, and I have fond memories of that struggle. That wine is the fruit of MY effort, MY passion and MY desire to create something that was truly unique and magical, at least in my mind. I had to overcome so many problems to have that little project going, that every time I get sip that wine I am truly impressed that I did not give up, and neither did any of the people that were working with me on that project.
In the next few weeks I hope to launch a project that is way bigger than myself and bigger than any aspiration I ever had, and the moment I will launch that project I will surely open some special bottle, but I am not sure which one just yet. As a matter of fact, it might even be a very average bottle of wine, but the occasion will magically transform that bottle into something truly magical, and every time I will come across that bottle I will have fond memories of that launch, whether it will successful or a complete failure. Over the years I will remember that bottle and it will be holding a special place in my heart as that Brunello 2006, that Rully 2007, that Port 1953, that Havana 2015 or that Quinta do Noval. Each and every one of those moments is stuck in my mind and I vividly remember those moment and the sips that were associated with them.
They will be my memories, and I cherish them and ensure that they are not dictated by any review but simply by the journey that were associated to them and the celebration that came with them. I am interested into my memories and my journey, not someone else rating of a wine.
Creating your wine is in itself a journey that is embedded with pleasure, joy, patience and inevitably some failure, which at times are an inevitable part of the journey. It is the most magical rite of passage that turns you from a mere wine drinker and wannabe connoisseur to a winemaker, a custodian of tradition that dates back to more that 8,000 years, and it is now easier and more accessible than ever, and most importantly is as easy as to access an app on your phone. Grow, experience, enjoy.
Michele Percivati
