89 Point Wines, ENOUGH ALREADY!

89 Point Wines, ENOUGH ALREADY! – Episode #320

September 25, 2007

Gary Vaynerchuk explores the 89 point phenomenon. Some fun wines today!

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Comments on this episode(151) Leave a comment ›

“Fun episode, interesting topid.

QOTD: Most deadlines are fundamenta…” by Phredd
“republican or democrat…. can’t we just be american? Legalize it!…” by Chris Lotz
View all 151 ›

Wines tasted in this episode:

2005 Chehalem Riesling ReserveOregon Riesling
2006 Te Kairanga Pinot NoirNew Zealand Pinot Noir
2005 Minchin Le Clos DelormeOther Loire Red Wine
2003 Miguel Torres Syrah ReservaChilean Shiraz
2003 Chateau SaintaymeSt Emilion
2004 Turkey Flat GrenacheAustralian Grenache

Links mentioned in todays episode.

151 Responses

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August 13, 2009

Phredd
Fun episode, interesting topid.

QOTD: Most deadlines are fundamentally arbitrary, yet people tend to treat them as drop-dead events. It is the source of much stress in our culture.
January 29, 2009

Chris Lotz
republican or democrat…. can’t we just be american? Legalize it!
October 29, 2008

Griz4life
I know this is late, but your pronunciation of Oregon disturbs me.
August 24, 2008

Dessert Wine Nerd
QOTD: People who give restaraunt reviews online like citysearch.com. I know that a lot of the reviews are helpful, but I recently looked at reviews for two restaurants in my area which are both fantastic, and all the negative reviews were absolute nitpicking. It was like they expected more than they deserved, or something. Either that or they were used to Americanized versions of the cuisines of the restaurants and didnt like true flavors from other parts of the world. Just disgusts me…. Enough of my rant, great show. I agree that wines under 90 do get a bad rap, and I know Im part of that and trying to change it. Loved the comment about throwing the quarters out the window. Bet that winemaker loves you…. ha.
July 8, 2008

CBone
QOTD: It is illegal to drink alcohol until one second after the midnight on your 21st birthday. Why not 14? Or 7? It is so silly, and the forbidden quality of it makes college kids (CKCs!) often see alcohol as a way to escape, rather than engage their lives. Too bad, isn’t it?
December 3, 2007

HuskerJ
QOTD: I know NJ isn’t exactly college football country, but here we find the BCS standings to be the stupidest thing in known existence.
October 22, 2007

Valentin
Hi Gary, sorry for the harsh words but a retard put a ‘ after the 89 on the black board behind you. It is 89s not 89’s! Just my 2 cents.
October 3, 2007

bryon wine
Hey Gary,

I’ve been sucked in by a couple of Miguel Torres wines. I guess I gave them a shot because I really like Veramonte and one other Chilean that I can’t recall right now. But your description about covers them.

I have found Wine Spectator to be fairly consistent with their ratings, unlike some magazine shills that must be receiving payola for their kind words (and numbers). Keep up the good work.

I complement you on your objectivity even though the Torres is on sale on your site.
October 2, 2007

Mike S.
FREE MARKETING RESEARCH!!!
QOTD: There are so many wines that have a 90pt score for under $20, that my first choice would be to try those wines before I journey into $20 89pt or below wines. Why??????? I dunno. I do not trust my palette enough to say “hey spectator, Partker, etc, I think you under-scored this one…. This one is more my style.” My other ‘line in the sand’ is no-score wines. I know I sound like a score freak, but if there is a wine at a store selling for 10, 15, 20 bucks, with no score and boring tasting notes ,then that wine has NO CHANCE of being bought by me. That’s just the way it is bro.
October 2, 2007

Mason
Great show for the 89s Gary. I have to admit, I have fallen victim to the “89…hmm…Oh, wait, here’s a 90 pointer!” More recently, though, as I learn more about regions, I try to go into my favorite wine shops and look for specific regions in my price point, and then determine what I think about them.

QOTD: Here I go, and I apologize beforehand. I cannot stand the way restaurants are rated. There are restaurants in my home town (Memphis, TN) that get praised for their bar-b-que, and totally don’t deserve the adoration that they get. Why? Because of their name, and the fact that they have ridden on their name for so long that they just don’t give a crap about making good food anymore. (and no, I am not talking about Corky’s!) So, here is to my pallet…the only one that matters.
September 30, 2007

Lawrence Leichtman
I don’t look at scores as anything but a starting point. If anyone rates a wine under 80 I won’t try it but I do look at tasting notes to see if they are flavors I’m interested in. Some varietals I just gravitate to and some like Pintoage I can’t warm up to.
September 30, 2007

Elliot Essman
Points are very handy, but so are tasting notes.

Points are necessary for the magazines that have to deal with thousands of wines. I think of a high score as a starting point. It will make me read the reviewer’s notes and seek out other notes.

But I am always aware that, because of my very broad tastes, I may like a wine that scores a little lower than the usual buy signals. Hence, 88 and 89 indicate to me that not only might I like the wine, but it may be a good value besides.
September 28, 2007

Pastafari Pirate
QOTD: can’t really think of any other such lines, arbitrary or not.

GREAT episode, btw, one of my favorites. You were on top of your game.
September 28, 2007

melanie
You make such great effort to pronounce names,regions and foreign words correctly,yet I heard you say “supposebly” instead of the actual correct word, supposedly with the ‘D’ properly placed. Please don’t say that anymore, it makes an incredibly intelligent and wine savvy individual such as yourself sound like a dolt.
I love your show and I think you are Fab ! I know that the general public does influence our speech and slang, but please drop this one.
September 28, 2007

JayZee
QOTD: Let’s see… If Vaynerchuk likes it, I’ll PAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
September 27, 2007

EricB
Nice show, I like the values you can find for “89 point” wines. The Ellen clips are hilarious!
QOTD – higher education degrees. Someone takes a few courses and all of a sudden they are “educated”, blah blah. Real life experience counts for so much more!
September 27, 2007

MtnCharlie
Great episode. Points, scoring it seems this is what drives the market. Futures. Is this wine or the stock market?

QOTD: B+/A- on a report card. No straight “A’s”. Hmmm… Your future is… mmmm… *limited*
September 27, 2007

YoungDave
QOTD: The Old-World, New-World line in the sand… or the varietal lines in the sand (like NO Chards or Merlots or Zins, etc.) People need to seek out value and different expressions of varietals and regions from all over the world without making sweeping generalizations. Some generalizations hold water to some extent, but never in every case… and THAT is where interesting values can be found.
September 26, 2007

addamms3
I know I’m a day late, and always a dollar short, but responding to your “riduculous line in the sand” question: the U.S.-Mexico border. I was born and raised in El Paso, Tx. and now live in San Antonio, Tx. Mexicans, by and large, great folks. Texans, by and large, great folks. Undocumented Mexicans, by and large, great folks who work harder than you or I would ever dream of, for less than you or I would ever consider. My uncle, who farmed throughout West Texas and Easern New Mexico, always cried when Border Patrol shut down the border because all the farmers would lose their crops, rotting in the fields for want of hands to harvest.
By the way, I drink wine too.
September 26, 2007

Pat Mc
Tonight am drinking a Rhone Rebel 2003 — opened 24 hours ago. Still a lovely drinking wine. Lines in the sand? the whole glass ceiling thing and now the gray ceiling thing. Jeez, people need to get over the labels and the scoring thing. Just like the wines.
September 26, 2007

PaVo
Gary,

Great show, One correction that i think one other person commented on. The NZ Pinot is not from Marlborough; it’s from Martinborough, which is on the north Island (as opposed to the south with marl) and is just north east of Wellington. Great region, I actually visited Te Kairanga and really enjoyed their wines about 7 years ago, so it’s good to see their still doing well. Martinborough is a great underrated, or more so, little known region in NZ, so thanks for highlighting it, even if you mistook it for Marlborough!

QTOD: I get pretty upset with the line that’s drawn in the sand by some wine drinkers who say “Bordeaux” is fantastic or “Burgundy” is great or Napa. With so many differences in the terroir alone saying that this region or that region is fantastic just seems as absurd as saying “everyone from Chicago is amazing”. (while this last statement is true, it’s still absurd to say!) And I think it upsets me more because it’s told to new wine drinkers and so they grab ‘a’ bordeaux and then have a bad experience and never go back to wine. Seems silly to me. I think that’s why I like wine library so much, you guys are working to dispel that myth, along with many others.
September 26, 2007

cumpari
QOTD: New World AVAs vs Old World AVAs…they serve completely different functions. The only commonality is that they identify place of origin.
September 26, 2007

Wil
Ah Ellen: sometimes I think that her face moves less than the furniture on her show – good to see it jogged into action by the illustrious Vayniac monarch. Keep on rockin’ the wine world G-to-the-V.

QOTD: The 38th Parallel
September 26, 2007

C.W. Miller IV
AofD: The sand-line marked between god and evolution.
September 26, 2007

BW
Good commentary today. I think the ratings game is overall more useful than not. If you are buying / drinking a lot of wine & you have tasted enough reviewed bottles to know how your pallete tracks relative to some of the critics, then the statistics will work for you over time. Some bottles will excede your expectations, some will be below expectations, but on average you will get the quality you are looking for over time.

Of course the key here is – drink lots of wine to make it work (that goes without saying, doesn’t it ?)

QOTD : In politics & philosophy, there are those who think the world is black & white with no shades of gray – they live in a world of hard lines that can’t crossed. The older I get, the more I realize that the reality is everything is really shades of gray – so I just try to avoid them in general.