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The wine rating system is flawed, because it doesn’t take into account the human factor.

The growing cast of wine consumers obsessed with scores – seemingly an inherent process for choosing super-premium wines these days – troubles me. It is not just the credulous trust in scores that is a concern, but the dependence of wine merchants and marketers on critics to sell wine through the blatant exploitation of ratings.

I encountered a ratings-obsessed individual not long ago when emceeing an options tasting, the entertaining – albeit masochistic – sport of identifying masked wines guided by multi-choice questions.

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Start Your Own Wine Bar at Home!

With the very nature of wine appreciably less intimidating nowadays and a growing familiarity amongst the populace, a glass of wine is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life around the world.

Today’s more self-assured, open-minded wine consumer has a considerably larger vinous world to explore with a myriad of regions, varieties and styles.

As any wine marketer will acknowledge, wine consumers are at their most inquisitive and adventurous in a restaurant environment or wine bar and willing to try something new, most likely served by the glass.

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Chateau Leoville Las Case 1978, 1981 & 2001
1978 Chateau Leoville Las Cases, France

Our Wandering Palate wanders down to the cellar – the merits of off-vintages from top Bordeaux Chateau.

A Chateau Leoville Las Case wine dinner held recently by the Singapore wine merchant Hermitage wines highlights the virtues and intrinsic worth of less-exalted vintages from a producer with impeccable standards.

As some of my readers will know, I am not exactly enamoured with Bordeaux. I concur with James Laube in his assessment and commentary in his latest column in Wine Spectator, 30 Sept, “A Farewell to Bordeaux.”, who said that “I have enjoyed Bordeaux, but I’ve been driven away both by prices and a style of wine that no longer holds the same allure for me that it once did. I moved on a long time ago. There are simply so many other enticing wine experiences to discover and enjoy.”

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The East is Reds…
Grape Wall of China Bordeaux wine tasting, Shanghai

The world is already awash in wine. But it appears almost inevitable, given the explosive growth of China’s vineyards, that western producers face competition from yet another lucrative class of exports: bulk wines, which China is gearing up to make in vast quantities at costs far below what traditional vintners can match.

Already, at least one Chinese vintner has announced plans to become one of the top 10 brands in the global market by 2008. That is interesting news for Chris Indelicato, the chief executive of Delicato Family Vineyards of Manteca, California, one of the world’s top exporters of bulk wines, who toured China recently. And, in a telephone interview from California, Indelicato said: “Given how things work, it would be naïve to say about anything from China that it will never be a threat.”

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Judging the Judges
Judging Wines

The perils of rating wines are many and, well, perilous. Can it be that the educated palate isn’t educated at all? Is this an oenological dirty little secret?

A four-year study in the United States, made public last week, showed that only 10 percent of wine judges were consistently able to give the same wine the same rating twice, to wines sampled multiple times in blind tastings.

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Singapore Sun Festival
The Singapore Sun Festival 2010

The Singapore Sun Festival is Singapore’s leading music and lifestyle festival. The Singapore Sun Festival which was inaugurated by IMG Artists in October 2007 is an annual multi-arts and integrated lifestyle Festival that celebrates the ‘Art of Living Well’ through the 7 disciplines of Music, Visual Art, Literature, Film, Wine, Food and Wellness. The Singapore Sun Festival exposes both Singapore citizens and foreign visitors to many superb, high-quality and prestigious event. The Festival brings top international and regional artists to Singapore every year, including world premieres and exclusive performances by stars from all over the world.

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A Wine List is Born
Wine glass & bottle

Leading vintners from across the globe will be at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre May 23-25, promoting their wines at Vinexpo, the world’s largest and most significant wine show.

Held bi-annually in Bordeaux since 1981, it now offers overseas exhibition s in the Asia-Pacific region in alternate years. Hong Kong staged the first in 1998 with Tokyo wrestling it away in 2000 and 2002, but exhibitors resoundingly requested a return to the fragrant harbour for this year’s event.

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Buying Wine | Related to: , , , | 6 comments
Coonawarra gone wrong
Highbank Coonawarra Sunset, Australia

Modern farming techniques and big business are sapping the Australian region’s potential, but there is hope, writes Curtis Marsh.

In comparing the similarities of climate and geology (terroir) shared by Australia’s Coonawarra region and Bordeaux in France, there was a period when Coonawarra genuinely challenged the world’s most renowned wine region for quality. However, the Bordelaise have fought back against the new world competition and are clearly reigning at the premium level.

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A Watershed Development for the Wine Consumer & Wine World
Preserving open wine

Throughout 6500 years of winemaking evolution, the constant issue of keeping wine from deteriorating and bacterial spoilage has been a conundrum. Ironically the solution to this quandary was always, literally, right under our noses.

Over thousands of centuries there are landmark discoveries and inventions that have been instrumental in changing the way wine has been made, stored, transported, traded and most significantly, consumed.

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Wine Ratings: Catering to the Herd Mentality or A Necessary Evil?
Wine Ratings

The clinical and somewhat erroneous methods of scoring or rating wine does not take into account the human factor, not only dysfunctional to its pleasures, but unfairly disqualifying otherwise perfectly agreeable wines. Yet, how else does the novice wine consumer or enthusiast alike, wade through an overwhelming glut of hype? Curtis Marsh explores this polemic.

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