Late night Somm rant

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

Foraging through old magazine piles to throw into the recycling bin, I ran across an article in Food & Wine July 08 about "Wines Sommeliers Love to Hate". My work as a market researcher had shown me the extent to which the tastes of trade gatekeepers and wine consumers diverge. But I wasn't prepared for some of these gems:

A wine director for the French Laundry: "the wines of Chile don't fit with Thomas Keller's cooking." Those of you with extensive experience with Chilean wines, ponder that sentence. Is this even possible? What properties of Chilean wines stretch across all their wines, from high acid peppery Leyda Valley Syrah to heady aromatic Casablanca Sauv Blanc to vegetal but soft Carmenere to Rolland-style Bordelaise Maipo blends, that make them ALL incompatible?

The wine director for Cru: "Vernaccia is an entire appellation that should be flushed down the toilet. Those wines just taste like paint thinner." Really? All of them?

A prominent NYC sommelier: "If I hear one more sommelier tell me what an epiphany they had when they first tasted Gruner...They think they're being cool..but they're not." I can share the irritation at Gruner's hipness, but given that it has so many different expressions from tangy greenness to Burgundian smoky-earthy qualities, it seems like a hard grape to hate on generically.

Even the recommendations of wines they like to replace the "bad" ones seem pretty specious - Zierfandler is touted has having an "awesome sense of place." How could one know what somewhereness is as interpreted through Zierfandler, which is only really in one place to begin with?

Are these attitudes unusual? Quoted out of context? Jaded palates desperate for anything different? Random and unrepresentative nonsense?

 

[Levi Dalton]

I actually have a lot to say about this whole bit, but I'll leave it out of print except for this addendum: Robert from Cru has specifically told me that he wished he hadn't been quoted on that Vernaccia comment, that it has caused a lot of fuss for a very casual remark, and that if pressed, he would admit to Montenidoli being a good producer.

Robert did work at Lupa once. Maybe he has tasted more than his fair share of lousy Vernaccia.

 

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

Are these attitudes unusual? Quoted out of context? Jaded palates desperate for anything different? Random and unrepresentative nonsense?

I actually have a lot to say about this whole bit, but I'll leave it out of print except for this addendum: Robert from Cru has specifically told me that he wished he hadn't been quoted on that Vernaccia comment, that it has caused a lot of fuss for a very casual remark, and that if pressed, he would admit to Montenidoli being a good producer.

Sounds like a mixture of #2 and #4. The kind of conversation that's fun among friends over a late bottle of wine, but not worthy of an article.

Robert did work at Lupa once. Maybe he has tasted more than his fair share of lousy Vernaccia.

Quite possible. Even likely.

 

[Keith Levenberg]

A wine director for the French Laundry: "the wines of Chile don't fit with Thomas Keller's cooking." Those of you with extensive experience with Chilean wines, ponder that sentence. Is this even possible? What properties of Chilean wines stretch across all their wines, from high acid peppery Leyda Valley Syrah to heady aromatic Casablanca Sauv Blanc to vegetal but soft Carmenere to Rolland-style Bordelaise Maipo blends, that make them ALL incompatible?

Their total inability to be sold at atrocious markups to shallow showoffs?

 

[Florida Jim]

Keith,
In the future, could you please just come out with it? This beating around the bush is confusing before I've had my coffee.
Best, Jim

 

[SFJoe]

originally posted by Keith Levenberg:

A wine director for the French Laundry: "the wines of Chile don't fit with Thomas Keller's cooking." Those of you with extensive experience with Chilean wines, ponder that sentence. Is this even possible? What properties of Chilean wines stretch across all their wines, from high acid peppery Leyda Valley Syrah to heady aromatic Casablanca Sauv Blanc to vegetal but soft Carmenere to Rolland-style Bordelaise Maipo blends, that make them ALL incompatible?

Their total inability to be sold at atrocious markups to shallow showoffs?

I was thinking something along those lines, but my snark quota was filled for the week.

 

[Sharon Bowman]

Woah.

 

[SFJoe]

It's been busy.

 

[Tom Glasgow]

My post is late but it's more a lesson in how to deal with the press. A reporter is looking for a story, they will quote anything that makes the story. Whatever you say is subject to being taken out of context.