Ep 052: Critiquing the Critics

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2012

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever wonder what those little tags with numbers on them in the wine shop actually mean? Who determines the difference between an 89 and a 90? What’s the scale like? How do they conduct these tastings? In this episode we critique the critics, talking about the various scoring systems — what they mean, what to look for, and why, ultimately, they are kind of like noise to your decision-making process. After shout-outs and a listener question on punts (in which M.C. Ice gives a crazy explanation that you can’t miss), the indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle, we get to the main topic: We cover the various systems of Robert Parker/the Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Jancis Robinson, and the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle. We quote from their websites about their scoring methodologies and then give our impressions of them. We talk about alternate methods of evaluating a wine and a way to revolt against the system…although w [...]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for
0:08.0	downloading Wine for Normal People Radio,
0:10.0	the podcast for people who like wine,
0:12.0	but not the snobbery that goes with it.
0:14.0	I'm Elizabeth Schneider a certified Zillma Yea and certified specialist of wine.
0:20.0	And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person.
0:23.0	Between doing a lot of wine shopping lately
0:27.0	and seeing those movies that we saw, the Mandovino and blood into wine. This week I really wanted to tackle a
0:37.4	subject that potentially could get me in a little bit of hot water.
0:41.1	Ooh this sounds good. Well it is good and I don't want to be
0:45.5	unkind but this week we are going to talk about the little tags you see in the
0:52.1	liquor store in the grocery store etc.
0:54.4	Oh, you mean the ones that say that it's 50% off?
0:58.2	No, I'm assuming you mean the ones that say 98 points by so-and-so.
1:05.8	Five-star.
1:06.8	The best wine you've ever heard of.
1:09.4	Gotta buy it.
1:10.5	That's absolutely what I am talking about. I think that it bears discussing what these point systems are, what they mean, why they evolved all that kind of stuff.
1:23.8	I don't even know how many point systems there are.
1:26.6	We'll get into that in a second.
1:28.4	But I do think that it's important for people
1:31.7	to know what they're talking about and how these different systems
	...

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