Chilean Values! – Episode #93

September 19, 2006

Wines tasted in this episode:

You asked Gary for it and now he repsonds! You asked for another Chilean episode and Gary delivers. Gary today tastes two Cabs and two Merlots from Chile to see how they measure up to their value. In a new twist for WLTV Gary issues a Challenge of the Day (COD) to all of the WLTV viewers!

104 Responses

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September 19, 2006

E
Three things:

One, I’m really liking this Chenin thing upthread, although I’d throw in a Steen and a Vouvray just to keep it interesting.

Two, it’s my sincere hope that one of these days, I’ll find a Chilean syrah that doesn’t reek of petrol and dead leaves, and taste even worse. The Cabs, not so much – Casa Concha’s always nice, even Los Vascos wasn’t so much bad as it was “meh”, but every syrah I had was downright awful.

And finally: “Protovision, I have you now!”
September 19, 2006

garyv
SO where are all the answers to the written question of the day!
September 19, 2006

Big Billy from Big D
Then there’s the VaynerGlug – a second taste and then a swallow.
Chin chin
September 19, 2006

garyv
JASON R I WILL DESTROY THEM !!!! LOL, no I am serious
September 19, 2006

Jason R.
Gary – Thanks for the “intern” QOD!!!

YOU HAVE REACHED HIGHER GROUND. I see that your competitors are WATCHING!!! The Wine Buyer (WAYNE, NJ) is bagging you on a bulk e-mail sent today.. I quote: “Unlike Our Competition, this is NOT our last Free Shipping offer of 2006! In fact, weâ€™re going to keep our free shipping page going with over 50 wines FOR THE REST OF 2006!”

Is this a “Mine is Bigger” fight?? LOL

Gary – You going to take that????!!! Those “Yahoo’s” (I know they are reading the comments too) have one-up’d ya… Just kidding – they are offering Free Shipping cause their prices are much higher and have a bunch of stuff they can’t move!!!
September 19, 2006

TimF
That’s maybe the best thing about WLTV. You actually see Gary’s reactions to tasting. You can’t see when RP makes a funny face — that doesn’t show up in the Wine Advocate. But you can tell when Gary likes something or doesn’t. In fact, that should be a column in the spreadsheet VaynerNod/VaynerChuck. Keeps it simple…
September 19, 2006

Matthew L
TimF…I agree that the Vayner-Nod is the most accurate wine rating system I’ve seen to date. I guess my question shouldn’t be limited to Gary and is a large query about the wine rating system itself. That’s why a couple weeks ago I mentioned an article in the NY Times about the problems with wine ratings. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/business/yourmoney/13rate.html?ex=1313121600&en=a02ef283eea32540&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I, too, am interested in that spreadsheet!
September 19, 2006

Matthew L
Julius…thanks for responding. I’m not “new” to WLTV. In fact, thought I stumbled upon the v-blog a few weeks ago, I watched all the old episodes (what does that say about my use of free time huh?–*shrug*) Anyway, you make a good point, and I do listen to what Gary says more than rely on the rating number. With that said, I still stand by my original line that there have been a number of reviews where he clearly didn’t like the wine AT ALL and still scored it 86. I’ve been thinking WTH? Other than pissing off distributors, which Gary doesn’t seem to have a real issue with, why not poo-poo a bottle if it’s really bad.
September 19, 2006

TimF
I had a bottle of $4 Purple Moon shiraz (from Trader Joes) the other day. Man that stuff isn’t bad for the price.

GaryV – I just got my shipment of those 4 free shipping Rieslings. Which one should I drink tonight?
September 19, 2006

TimF
Julius – I agree completely. He’ll say, “Oh man this is a great wine — I love it”. Then he’ll give it an 89. Then he’ll pan a wine, say it’s terrible and give it an 89. I can’t wait to see the spreadsheet. I’m guessing there are a double-ton of 89s. The Vayner-Nod is a much more accurate measure of the wine’s quality.
September 19, 2006

garyv
I knew that Simpson’s toy would throw a lot of you “off”
September 19, 2006

garyv
YO DUDES whats up!!!! I Miss you guys, I will be back in NJ on THURSDAY taping a fresh episode! How is everyone, suddo question of the day….”what are you drinking tonight?”—ME JUST merlot from a screw top 187ml, JET BLUE’s merlot on flight. Oh and another thing….I LOVE U GUYS

so answer the question….what arr you drinking tonight?
September 19, 2006

Julius
Obviously Matthew L Has not been a long time viewer of WLTV. Gary’s method of scoring has very often not been “in step” with his descriptions and recommendations of the wines. He may use the same number scale (1-100) as WA and WS but lacks the structure of those systems (as the WA method you described and the WS system previously described). There may be some validity to his extreme scoring (below 80 or above 90) but you just have to ignore his “in between” scoring and focus on what he says about the wine.
September 19, 2006

Mike I
Basketball hall of fame, Sprigfield MA
September 19, 2006

BigBob
Springfield, NJ or is it Millburn. Same desk as always…
September 19, 2006

TimF
Oh now I get it. He messed up and said Yahoo when he opened the Yoo-Hoo. Man am I slow…
September 19, 2006

Tony
Arrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t not do the heat episode! Particularly just because you forgot to shake a Yoohoo!!

Good episode on Chilean wines. Totally agree on the Los Vascos. I thought it was terrible.

So what’s in Sunnyvale, and how did EmeryP get Sunnyvale from Yoohoo?? And what’s in Sunnyvale? Are you going to make it up to Napa or Sonoma while you’re in our sunny state?
September 19, 2006

StanVH
Matthew L you’ve raised an interesting point.

I very rarely see a wine rated less than about 85 points — lets say 80 points is the lowest that 99.9% of the published ratings get.

There may be lower scores that don’t get published. However, a quick perusal of the latest (Oct. 15) issue of Wine Spectator indicated that only 7 out of 650 wines were below 80 — and thse were all in the high 70’s. Their system is similar to Parkers. 70 – 79 “a drinkable wine with minor flaws”, 80 – 84 “Good-a solid, well made wine, and so on.

Then, what we really have is a 20 point scale. I remember, back in the day when I first began to be interested in wines, there was indeed a 20 point scale. It was composed of so many points for color, bouquet, taste, etc and if a wine was tops in all of these categories, then it would acheive a score of 20. No matter what Paraker, Wine Spectator, et al, say, I think that we have basically a de facto 20 point scale. Thus an 85 point wine would be (more-or-less) a 17 pointer, 90 –> 18 points, 95 –> 19 points and so on.

I regard most scores with a grain of salt. I find that I generally score wines for myself in the following two-tier scale:

Tier 1 — 0 to 5 astericks with 3 astericks and above being wines is lke a lot, a real lot and a really, really lot

Tier 2 — 0 to 1 0 – even though I may like it, its not worth it, 1 – its worth it.

I would like to see what scoring systems, if any, that others use.

Salut
September 19, 2006

I.B.
Hello Gary V!
Interesting show. Personally though, I would love to see more â€œold schoolâ€ wines in the line ups.
So hereâ€™s my idea of THE PERFECT SHOW: 4 DRY chenin blanc wines! The chenin grape is too often mechanically associated with sweet dessert wines. A great shame!Actually bone-dry chenin blancs can be a very interesting alternative to Riesling. To make things easier, Iâ€™ve found the following 4 dry chenins from http://www.winelibrary.com:
1) DRY CREEK CHENIN BLANC (SONOMA COUNTY, USA – On Sale: $9.99 )
2) FOXEN CHENIN BLANC ERNESTO WICKENDEN VINEYARD 2003 (SANTA MARIA VALLEY, USA – On Sale: $15.99 )
3) JOLY SAVENNIERES 2003 (LOIRE, FRANCE – On Sale: $23.99 )
4) BAUMARD SAVENNIERES TRIE ESPECIALE 2003 (LOIRE, FRANCE – On Sale: $28.99 )
September 19, 2006

gabe
sunnyvale, CA
September 19, 2006

Brandon M
Oh….Sunnyvale…Yahoo Headquarters…still weeeeeeak.
Is EmoryP a Yahoo guy?…must be.

1975 Chateau Latour…there, now I’m not off topic.

B
September 19, 2006

Jason R.
Since there has already been a winner… What next??? Maybe back to the standing QOD (That Gary erupted on me when I suggested…. “What was the last bottle of wine that you drank???”

C~Mon Gary – It’s O.K. I am not stealing your Thunder.. I just like to hear what people are drinking as I find it interesting and it brings me out of my shell of drinking Napa Cabs & Bordeaux.

Last wine I drank was 2000 Meyney…. Little young, very very tight – Started to get something on the nose after about 3 hours. On palate – rich, dark fruit, plummy, little woodsy flavors… This was the first of the 50+ bottles of 2000 in cellar and if any indication – they need more time to mellow out and have excellent potential…
September 19, 2006

Rob M.
OK, I give up. How did you know, EmoryP?

Excellent episode, always excited about value wines.
September 19, 2006

Brandon M
Sunnyvale? Because of Snapple? Weeeeeeeeeak!
September 19, 2006

Sam Zen
G- agreed with the Los Vascos. In addition to it meaning The Basques (of which I am one) I loved the older reserves. However, since the 03 vintage the quality has dipped considerably in my opinion. Can you find out what happened. They really need to get their act back together.