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Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/13/2018 6:16:50 AM   
KPB

 

Posts: 4648
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
Status: offline 		I was just reading Antonio Galloni’s newest Napa reviews on Vinous.com. And I’m baffled. Short of visiting Continuum and Blankiet I have no idea what will think of those wines.

Here’s my puzzle. For me, he gets many reviews right. I like VHR, and he likes VHR. For example.

But I find that Antonio always gives high scores to the famous wines, Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Colgin, etc, even when the wines are muddled/blurry and lack distinct character, or are extremely oaky, or have some other jarring attribute. Kapscandy uses an unusual yeast (I’m not fond of it). Ovid takes the oak to some kind of lunatic extreme, and lots of others do this too. Some Bevan wines are a bit over the top. Would you know that from these reviews? Nope.

So for example, in his Bond article he gets some of the Bond wines right, but many are just described inaccurately. Would you know that Pluribus invariably has a tobacco aroma, or that St. Eden is often more mineral dominated than Vecina, in a good way? Not really.

So I’m thinking I should try the Blankiet and Continuum wines... but I won’t buy any until I do.

Same with his Italy and Bordeaux reviews: endless praise but a certain basic vagueness (although sometimes he nails them). Steve Tanzer and Josh Raynolds and Ian D’Agata really paint pictures in words. But Antonio? Not so well.

Are others having this issue with Antonio’s reviewing?

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Ken Birman
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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/13/2018 7:19:36 AM   
S1

 

Posts: 14825
Joined: 11/12/2011
From: Wandering between Coastal SC and South FL
Status: offline 		Ken--I'm no help with Galloni, but I do know that my palate and your palate align on many wines. I think you will like/love Continuum. The big dose of Cab Franc add a great "pretty" to the Cab Sauvignon backbone.
I've been on the list since the very beginning and have visited multiple times.
Graeme MACDONALD is now making Blankiet...

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(in reply to KPB)
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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/13/2018 8:07:05 AM   
Chip Merlot

 

Posts: 529
Joined: 10/13/2013
From: NJ
Status: offline 		I agree on Galloni, I think his descriptions are often more about how he "feels" about a wine vs descriptors that help you understand if you will like it. Not always, but often, probably more than a lot of pro critics.

And a side note, I'm so happy to hear the comment about Kapcsandy, the yeast thing explains a lot. I thought it was just me.

(in reply to S1)
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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/13/2018 10:36:57 AM   
KPB

 

Posts: 4648
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
Status: offline 		I saw that about Blankiet... thinking I might try to visit next time we drop in on my daughter. But those could be interesting wines. Graeme has a light touch and doesn’t overoak... Blankiet has great material for him to work with...

< Message edited by KPB -- 1/13/2018 5:57:38 PM >

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Ken Birman
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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/15/2018 8:39:54 AM   
mc2 wines

 

Posts: 3873
Joined: 8/31/2012
From: NYC
Status: offline 		Interesting. We've never bothered to find a critic who aligns with our tastes, but during our visit last week I did start to think about it. And so we asked winemakers/wine ppl that we like which reviewers they like and AG came up the most often.

Then again, we like some more restrained and equally like some of the other spots (like Colgin and Ovid). And then don't like some other spots or at least don't quite get them (for a long time Kapcsandy had same winemaker as Blankiet, charged 30% more for their wines, and worked off valley floor versus hillside... that doesn't make sense to me...).

(and yes - Blankiet getting Graeme was an awesome call which we expressed to them last week... pretty excited to try those wines - apparently he's been shifting the vineyard approach and time in tank and.... 2015s were his blend, 2016 will be his wines)

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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/15/2018 9:36:22 AM   
KPB

 

Posts: 4648
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
Status: offline 		Mike, what wines stood out during your visits?

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Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/15/2018 9:39:32 AM   
mc2 wines

 

Posts: 3873
Joined: 8/31/2012
From: NYC
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: KPB

Mike, what wines stood out during your visits?


Short answer - all of them.

Notes here - https://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=37272

If push came to shove, would say the Lokoyas, Colgins, Blankiet Merlot, Carter O.G., VHR, BOND (esp Quella, Pluribus, St Eden), Antica Terra, and Progeny (although all of those are pre-release).

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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/15/2018 10:43:35 AM   
KPB

 

Posts: 4648
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
Status: offline 		Wow, that seems like quite an epic vacation! I’m very impressed. I don’t have the stamina, myself: I love to meet the winemakers and to associate the wine with the land, but after two or three tastings even over a week or two, my enthusiasm for doing that flags, and I start to opt for cycling or some other kind of tourism over more wineries.

Your notes are quite good: I know a number of the wines you tasted, and the descriptions are very evocative, even on the hard ones to describe, like the Ovid W3.6, which is a wine I would love to buy and probably can’t (they only sell it directly). The W2.5 was fantastic.

I can see that you do tolerate oak better than me. Colgin and the Ovid reds are in the “cassis in creme caramel” camp that I find over the top, and Colgin gets a level of thickness that I dislike (not just her: Futo too, and a bunch of others). But we have a solid overlap on Bond, VHR, MacDonald, many others. I guess I need to try the Continuum and Blankiet wines!

< Message edited by KPB -- 1/16/2018 11:55:40 AM >

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Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

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Post #: 8
RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/16/2018 9:12:12 AM   
grafstrb

 

Posts: 8833
Joined: 11/6/2007
From: LAla land
Status: offline 		Galloni just isn't very useful to me, except as a single voice in a chorus (where I cam compare him to others). Overall, he likes "big" wines more than I do, and, now that we're on the topic, I am realizing that he I, too, perceive a consistency problem with him.

Neil Martin and Jancis Robinson, on the other hand, I find very useful for Bdx..

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RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/16/2018 10:13:35 PM   
Anthonyiez

 

Posts: 147
Joined: 8/28/2017
Status: offline 		I'm really gonna miss Parker. Say what you want but I found him easy to calibrate to, both positive & negative.

(in reply to grafstrb)
Post #: 10
RE: Totally unable to calibrate VM Napa reviews - 1/17/2018 4:00:50 AM   
KPB

 

Posts: 4648
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
Status: offline 		I actually liked Parker very much, until his reviews of the 1998 and 2003 Rhône vintages, when for me, he derailed and became very erratic. I felt that he totally missed obvious flaws in many wines: vegetal flavors and aromas, iodine, stewed or burnt fruit. Prior to then, yes, he was good.

I can see how it might occur. I’m a person with a limited capacity for how many wines I can taste in a single tasting, or even in a week, and an inability to judge wines if I’ve drunk too much. So, putting myself in their shoes, it is easy to imagine that these guys are both examples of people with sound palates but who became overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the undertaking. These are people who end up drinking continuously, only spitting some of the wine out, and maybe the alcohol impairs their judgement, eventually...

I do get it: who would spit at a Harlan tasting, or DRC, or Conterno? But if you rush from tasting to tasting, then back to a hotel suite with ninety bottles lined up... followed by three star dinners every day...

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Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

(in reply to Anthonyiez)
Post #: 11
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