bordering on poetry over at El Bloggo Torcido.
Tell me what you ate with the wine.
Tell me how the wine made you feel.
Tell me how it smelled.
Tell me what memories the wine evoked.
Tell me what senses were engaged.
Tell me what flavors excited you.Tell me how it connected you with the people who made the wine, the people that grew it, the people who thought to share it with you…
Click on over and read the whole thing. It’s a pretty polemic against wine ratings, and it captures the emotion that anyone who has created something for others to enjoy feels when their creation is subjected to a highly reductionist score or rating.
But that way lies maddness; the type of maddness only artists can afford to indulge. And as El Jefe knows as well as anyone: we’re business people first and second. Artistry as a raison d’être comes in a distant third.
So Mr. Wine Reviewer, if your stars, points or grades help you communicate your opinion to hasty readers so impatient to cut through the glut of wine that they can’t be bothered to parse a tasting note, I say well done sir. Rate away! You’re helping the market break its inertia and open its wallet.
And while that’s not exactly romantic, is not a bad thing either.
OK, so I was in a mood last night… what you got was personal opinion, not necessarily bidness opinion. Just look at any of our materials and you’ll see I wantonly use any all awards and scores that I can bring to bear. But I also must acknowledge that there have been many great writeups of our wines that carried no ratings at all, and these have helped our brand acceptance in a big way. Thanks! - j
Well, it’s fine if you’re the wine with the 92, but no so good, Mr. Businessman, if you’re the wine with the 89. Yet, the 89 wine is probably perfectly fine to drink (unless you’re completely jaded). The problem occurs when people buy only based on a number, not because of personal experience with the wine. So even though El Jefe was waxing rhapsodic, there is still a business reason to decry a blind reliance on ratings.
The problem is that with over 10,000 new wines each year, people are looking for guidance. And when wine writing gets too geeky, people opt for a number.
Jefe,
I thought your post was extremely moving Jeff. It’s how I feel as well, I just don’t see any way our industry could function without ratings anymore (sadly). FWIW I’ll never give a wine a score on this blog.
I guess I’m just hard hearted (and scared about what might happen if we don’t sell enough wine). But I think you have to deal with market realities when you’re just starting out. When we have some cash in the bank and a relatively steady flow of revenue, I’m sure I’ll start to fuss over the artistic stuff much more.
Mike,
I’m entirely sympathetic to the idea that wine shouldn’t be rated, but that’s just not the world we live in. I’m also aware that our style of Pinot isn’t likely to garner a huge score from the typical gatekeepers. But since I know this, I can plan around it, hone my market focus and not be blown out of the water if/when I get an 89 (or less) instead of a 92.
There is certainly a business reason to decry relying on one or two people’s ratings, but I don’t see any business rationale in rallying to eliminate ratings in general. They’re a powerful force in the market, and tell a complex story simply. As you say, people buy more wine because of them because there is just too much wine out there.
Thanks for the comments!
Very interesting post. What Tim has proposed (the 5-star system) does have the potential, if bloggers all agreed to do it, to provide a way to gather ratings from across the blogosphere and generate a rating that might be used in marketing (i.e. “# wine bloggers give this wine 4 stars out of 5.”) But already folks are “translating” the stars into the 100-point scale–and we don’t even have the plug-in yet! This worries me (and some other bloggers, too) because I try to give people something more thoughtful and something that has a clear evaluative standard built into it.
I hope that Tim and others develop such a standard for the star rating system. If they did I would use it. But until then, given the wide variety of interpretations on how folks would dole out stars, I’m going to stick to quality/price ratio and long, wordy reviews because that’s what me and my readers seem to want. And, incidentally, they do buy wine based on these reviews, if the outclicks to wine-searcher, and various winery stores are any indication.
a little irony on el bloggo today, but no way I’m not going to talk about gold medals!