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Red

2012 Bodegas Castaño Yecla Solanera Viñas Viejas Mourvèdre Blend, Mourvèdre

1/26/2015 - ricegpa Does not like this wine:

80 points

The wine reviewed by Mr.Parker was assigned 94 points which were appropriate for the wine he described

"amazing red wine displays notes of lead pencil shavings, acacia flowers, black raspberries, blueberries and black currants. This full-bodied, intense 2012 tastes like it should cost three to five times as much. Full-bodied, stunningly pure and textured, it should last for 4-5 years, possibly longer. "

I predict that Mr. Parker was served something else. He might have mixed up his tasting notes or he was engineering a deal with Eric Solomon.

I could not finish even half of a small glass. Acacia flowers had not touched my bottle, and the taste of dark red fruits was in the direction of rhubarb rather than raspberries, blueberries and currants..

This wine should cost a third to a fifth as much as it does. I would be generous in assigning 80 points to this juice which should have been left on the vine. He was right about one thing. This wine will likely last 4-5 years, because no one will drink it.

ricegpa commented:

3/5/15, 5:14 PM - I have immense respect for both Mr. Parker and Mr. Solomon. Based upon the generous review of this wine, I went to great personal effort, driving to Montreal from a distance of 300 miles, just to acquire a case of a wine which turned out to be essentially undrinkable. Perhaps it was a bad bottle. Perhaps the bottles offered to the professional reviewers are not the same wines as those sold under the same label. This issue could be rectified by ensuring that the professionals who review wines conducted their reviews in a blind and independent manner.

I have had this wine tasted by every member of my wine tasting group. The opinion is universal, that this wine is vastly over-scored and essentially undrinkable. I notice most cellar tracker reviewers assigned scores lower than the scores assigned by the Wine Advocate. Only 4 reviewers of 60 have matched the score of 94 and most are significantly below this. Not one cellar tracker score was higher. The cellar tracker community assigned this an average score which was almost 16 points lower than the professional review published in the Wine Advocate. Even your score was 2 points shy of the professional review. My score was not the lowest.

I would argue that the wine is over-scored, for whatever reason and that these reasons will always remain speculative until we have greater confidence that reviews are conducted in a blind manner, without any possible connection between the reviewer and the maker or distributor.

I would cheerfully offer one of my 11 remaining bottles to the professionals for a second review. Perhaps they could share the wine on which they opined. The onus should be on the professional reviewers to defend their opinions when the vast majority (93%) of opinions are contrary to theirs. Until we have the reassurance of blind, independent reviews, the non professionals will fully be entitled to their darker interpretations. On this issue, I believe that the vast majority of cellar tracker reviewers would take my opinion seriously. Very seriously.
ricegpa commented:

3/5/15, 6:28 PM - The case I bought was placed on the shelves of the outlet in Montreal on the day it was purchased and it was consumed the same day. I cannot comment on any prior shipping irregularities. Heat exposure is not likely to be an issue in Canada in these months.

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