Discovering wine (II): My theory.

Journalism

When I first got interested in wine, perhaps the most obvious place to start for me, as for many of us, was picking up a wine magazine or paying attention to a critic’s weekly column. 20 years on and the format has changed dramatically, with the rapid switch to online equivalents – either in parallel to print or as replacements.

We’re taking advantage of their expertise to assess wines, to guide us to and through the right knowledge. We’re also taking advantage of their independence, at least in most cases, to give us an uncoloured view of what’s ‘hot’ and what’s not.

There are plenty of well-known specialist titles still in circulation, like US publications Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and of course The Wine Advocate, founded by Robert Parker and now owned by Singaporean investors, as well as Decanter in the UK. There are likewise newspapers still supporting wine journalism with seriousness, like Eric Asimov in the New York Times, or El Mundo led by Victor de la Serna.

I rapidly gravitated to the work of Jancis Robinson MW and have been a long-time subscriber to her website, as well as to Robert Parker’s. This latter pair highlights perhaps one of the challenges with journalists – whether their tastes reflect yours: will you like a wine they judge to be great? I chose to take perspectives from two experts with different palates, to get a broad view, but it’s a particularly important choice when paying for the publication or the subscriber fees.

And cost of accessing this kind of knowledge is rising, with publishers increasingly putting up paywalls or equivalent to monetise the work of their paid journalists.

Blogging

Which brings us to the obvious next information source. Frequently free to access, there are a plethora of amateurs whose entry into wine writing was enabled by the arrival of blogging platforms and cheap websites. Essentially, anyone could become a wine writer.

The 2000s saw a multiplicity of wine blogs being set-up with many adopting new technology like video to bring simplicity and clarity to their communication. Indeed, with the advent of YouTube, New York wine retailerGary Vaynerchuk propelled himself to social media guru through his enthusiastic, down-to-earth WineLibraryTV wine vlogs.

Beyond free-access, the biggest advantage that wine bloggers have brought is democratisation of wine writing, its language, its chosen subjects and its methods. Traditional wine journalists were selected by the establishment to write for them, often hiring in their own image and perpetuating the style: reviewing only fine wines, only the classic regions, using complex, opaque, exclusive language and so on.

The flip-side of this is experience, or lack thereof, and judging whether a given writer’s perspective should be given credence. That particularly true with tasting wines and critiquing their quality, where training counts (more of that later).

Nevertheless, I found 3 British bloggers particularly engaging. Chris Kissack, aka The Wine Doctor,

focuses on Bordeaux and the Loire Valley, with a lot of history of specific estates, though this went to subscription and I chose not to pay.

In around 2005, I came across Wine-Journal, then written by Neal Martin, whose style was entertaining. Not only that, but I trusted his wine reviews. Of course, Wine-Journal was absorbed into The Wine Advocate as Neal became one of the leading international critics, now writing for Antonio Galloni’s Vinous.

Finally, wineanorak, written by Dr Jamie Goode continues to be a go to for insightful, scientifically accurate and thoughtful perspectives on wine. Similarly, Dr Goode has gone on to become an established wine writer, with well-researched books and a newspaper column, proving that there are genuinely good bloggers to be found.

Crowdsourcing

The even more extreme source of ‘democratic’ wine information is peer-to-peer. The Cellartrackerplatform in particular has aggregated thousands of critical ratings of wines made by members, working on the basis that, on average, there is wisdom in crowds.

TheVivinophone app, with its label identification software, has built a commercial wine sale proposition around exactly this. Such sources operate like TripAdvisor does for travellers or Feefo reviews do for online shoppers.

Similarly, online forum comments and discussion threads from amateurs offers a source for sharing knowledge itself, beyond simply wine ratings.

But for me, there is a huge drawback, especially in scoring quality. Not everyone is skilled in evaluating a wine. In part, this is simple depth of prior experience – it’s hard to say a wine is great if you have never tasted the finest wines.

This can often be seen with TripAdvisor restaurant reviewers giving 5 stars for their local, solid-quality restaurant; if that’s 5 stars, what would dinner at El Celler de Can Roca be?

In greater part, it is about having honed the ability to assess. Looking as objectively as possible at a wine’s quality, beyond the subjective “I like it”, is a skilled process. Personally, I know I am vastly better at this now than I was 10 years ago, having trained to do it over several years.

I remain sceptical, therefore, and take such information ‘with a pinch of salt’.

Wine books

Books have been written on a myriad of different aspects of wine. Some provide information on broad topics across the wine world, such as, natural winemaking in Authentic Wine by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop MW, or Wine Myths and Reality by Ben Lewin MW.

Books like these are typically well-researched and if well-written are a great way to understand why wines are the way they are. I most recently found Volcanic Wines by John Szabo MS a great way to understand this emerging trend in terroir.

Likewise, books about the wines of specific countries or regions – perhaps the most common form of wine book – can be packed full of information on the geography, climate, grape varieties, appellation regulations and winemaking practices that explain why particular styles of wine are found in those regions.

Publisher Mitchell Beazley’s Classic Wine Library series was a goldmine for my wine studies. For example, The Wines of Greece by Konstantinos Lazarakis MW told me all I needed to know, to answer a question on Savatiano! Many of these, like The Wines of Greece, are being updated with second editions.

Inevitably, such guides may point to generally good producers, but specific wine recommendations and vintages to help people buy right now are typically not included. Moreover, these can become dated if they are looking at regions where a lot of change is taking place, like South Africa or indeed the renaissance of Spain beyond Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

Finally, though there are broad texts like the invaluable World Atlas of Wine created by Hugh Johnson, these are often narrow in scope – perhaps just Bordeaux or Burgundy – meaning you’d need to buy and read many books to get a global point of view. It can also be hard to know where to start, though there are also plenty of beginners’ ‘what is wine’ books as well.

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¹Savatiano is a white grape variety native to Attica in Greece, most notably the backbone of retsina, being blended with a minority of Roditis, along with pine tree resin if it’s a good one.

Wine guides

The other main form of wine book is the annual wine guide, that assesses a plethora of wines from producers – typically across a region or country. These are great for an in-depth view of the wines you will find on the market, to help you make better buying decisions. Because of their regional focus, you can get a much more comprehensive view of producers, beyond those more commonly found, and get a sense of relative quality.

Naturally, the downside is that these are only a snapshot of that given year and may not give a good view of track records. Also, they typically depend on which producers choose to submit wines for judgement at all, as well as which wines they provide for tasting.

Touring France, I quickly discovered how widespread the Guide Hachette des Vins was, and bought several editions over the following years – though Bettane et Dessauve is perhaps as famous. Similarly, I found the Guía Peñin useful for getting to grips with Spain.

The awarding of Tre Bicchieri (3 glasses) by the Gambero Rosso judges is much coveted by Italy’s winemakers. In Germany it’s the Gault-Millau, Australia James Halliday’s Wine Companion and South Africa, Platter’s Guide.

Textbooks

Finally, there are of course academic textbooks and reference works, typically covering winemaking and viticulture – the ultimate ‘why’ of wine.

Books like Ronald Jackson’s Wine Science, General Viticulture by Winkler et al, or highly detailed texts like Yair Margolit’s Wine Chemistry, alongside such reference tomes as the definitive Wine Grapes by Vouillamoz, Robinson and Harding, provide the ardent knowledge-seeker with the most technical of information.

For most wine lovers, these are perhaps less relevant and useful than books on regions or styles, and can be hard just to sit down, read and absorb. Only true wine geeks need seek these out!

Whether online or offline, recognised authorities or new voices in wine writing, words or pictures, the single biggest drawback with all of these sources is that they can’t give the all-important learning experience: tasting and drinking.