War on Wine

P

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
From NY Times Article "Maggie Harrison’s War on Wine"...

“Terroir is a myth." She considers wine, like art, to be “cultural, not natural,” and she doesn’t see herself solely as a servant of the natural world. It’s not that Harrison doesn't recognize the importance of the land. She just doesn’t believe that great vineyards magically create great
wines.
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Maggie Harrison's War on Wine

. . . . . Pete
 
"She just doesn’t believe that great vineyards magically create great
wines."

well, duh. of course. this is supposed to be news?? with cultured yeasts, extracting enzymes, excessive new wood, harvesting at the wrong time, excessive yields, and on and on, ad nauseum, you could make shite from any vineyard.

but you can't make great wine from a mediocre vineyard, even if your name is, for instance, michel rolland, or maggie harrison.
 
Maggie's Pinot Noirs are excellent and do very well in the market place...even given their relatively high prices. The Botanica Pinot Noir is probably my favorite of her wines.

Considering all the wine tastings I've been to most everywhere, I still consider the tasting at Antica Terra to be among the very best I can recall. Superb commentary and terrific wines plus they pulled some old ones for us. The wines were accompanied with Jamón Ibérico ham and miscellaneous nibbles during the tasting.

. . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
Has anyone here tasted these wine?
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Pete has posted a note on them. At their prices, I won’t be trying any any time soon, I fancy.

Mark Lipton
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Thanks for this. There's one Pinot in the $50 range that I may test drive. Will report back if I do.
 
been quite some time but the Antica Terra Pinot I tried was very much not in a style that appealed to me. Lots of extraction and a really BIG pinot that could have come from anywhere that irrigated and spoofed. Same for the Lillian Syrah.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
been quite some time but the Antica Terra Pinot I tried was very much not in a style that appealed to me. Lots of extraction and a really BIG pinot that could have come from anywhere that irrigated and spoofed. Same for the Lillian Syrah.
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What Mike said.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Maggie's Pinot Noirs are excellent and do very well in the market place...even given their relatively high prices. The Botanica Pinot Noir is probably my favorite of her wines.

Considering all the wine tastings I've been to most everywhere, I still consider the tasting at Antica Terra to be among the very best I can recall. Superb commentary and terrific wines plus they pulled some old ones for us. The wines were accompanied with Jamón Ibérico ham and miscellaneous nibbles during the tasting.

. . . . . . Pete
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Pete,
First, I’m glad you enjoyed your visit - I would certainly like to meet and talk with Maggie.
But her wines is where we part company, whether AT or Lillian, they’re in the same mold as SQN - and that puts them well outside my box. And the pricing is, well, for someone else.
Different strokes . . .
 
Jim, I agree with you in re SQN but, perhaps due to some sort of bias on my part, I don't see a parallel with Antica Terra.

. . . . . . Pete
 
I'm not familiar with the wines, but if they're good, the author did his subject a disservice by building his whole story on the premise that there's something revolutionary about 1) blending different vineyards, 2) working out of an ugly building, or 3) comparing wine and art. None are especially unusual, of course. Similar puff pieces were written about Krankl's vomitous wines two decades ago, and someone determined to write the same piece again has any number of wineries to choose from that could fit the narrative. (I'd have gone with Extradimensional myself, though I believe they're upgrading to a spiffy new winery.) Anyway, the woman sounds like a character, but with Krankl as a winemaking mentor, I can't muster up much curiosity. I do feel like the heiress to a collection of Katz, Close, and Hockney originals could probably manage to sell her Oregon pinot for less than $250 or whatever it was.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm not familiar with the wines, but if they're good, the author did his subject a disservice by building his whole story on the premise that there's something revolutionary about 1) blending different vineyards, 2) working out of an ugly building, or 3) comparing wine and art. None are especially unusual, of course. Similar puff pieces were written...
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That's just it. I like the NYT Magazine and all the other expected long-form journalism outlets. But, so many of the 'features' about individual 'celebrities' read like press releases, driven by publicists, etc.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg: if they're good,
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Keith, your valid points moved me to poke around various places and just see what people say about Antica Terra Pinot Noirs. I can't recall ever doing this before.

I didn't do exhaustive research but a few googles failed to uncover a single review/rating that was less than strongly positive. Obviously, this isn't conclusive, but together with their marketing success it seems rather telling about their popularity with pundits and wine enthusiasts.

I'm not a frequent buyer at their price point. I just try to grab some whenever I see attractive promotional pricing.

. . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by Keith Levenberg: if they're good,
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a few googles failed to uncover a single review/rating that was less than strongly positive. Obviously, this isn't conclusive, but together with their marketing success it seems rather telling about their popularity with pundits and wine enthusiasts.

. . . . . Pete
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It is unfathomable to me what this might prove. S.F.W.
 
There are a lot of wines whose public commentary is uniformly positive despite being pretty lousy, but all it means is that people who wouldn't like them don't bother buying them. Setting your price at $250 is a pretty good way of making sure all your buyers are REALLY into whatever you're selling. Sometimes the public comment is also uniformly positive because people who don't have positive things to say don't feel like getting hate mail for rocking the boat. Krankl's wines are in that category. I've gotten some magnificent hate mail about them.
 
Fwiw, I’ve only had her rosé several years ago which didn’t do much for me. High extract and not particularly refreshing.
 
Brian, no surprise. I don't recall having it, but the Antica Terra Rose tends to be a rather polarizing wine with reviews ranging from not-so-good to excellent (while varying, most of the reviews I've seen have tended to be on the favorable side).

. . . . . Pete
 
and there you have it - why I don't have much use for wine critics and prefer to taste for myself. But since I just posted an impression, that makes me a wine critic in some sense. So I encourage everyone to do with my words what I do with Parker, Suckling, and all the others...ignore them. Do your own tasting, do your own research if that's what it takes.

This may come off as snarky but as my friend who works on cars says...there's an asshole for every seat, enjoy the ride.
 
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