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
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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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September 25, 2007

amgryger
I rarely buy wines based on scores and, in fact, I buy almost all of my wine from 4 stores, 3 of which don’t even post scores and 2 of those specialize in small-production old world wines that rarely get scored anyway. Also, in my most recent experiences buying wines that got high scores, I ended up being really dissappointed in the wines because I felt they brought tons of body and fruit but then couldn’t finish elegantly, which is something I look for in wine, so that experience kind of turned me off the whole scoring thing a bit more.

QOTD: The bitter ideological feud that has developed at my alma mater, which has been an impairment to meaning intellectual discourse.
September 25, 2007

James Roscoe
Line in the sand? Who the h### cares? Great show today. I want to find that Bordeaux!
September 25, 2007

GregS
Gary,
Just watched the clip from the Ellen show, and it was awesomely hillarios. Especially the followup where they showed the clip of the producer dry-running the tasting with you. You were awesome. Love to see more.

QOTD: Who ever started the stupid 9/10 of a cent thing at the gas station anyhow?
September 25, 2007

tarheel17
You know which lines in the sand I think are ridiculous? The lines in the sand filled with cigarette butts. I’m talking about under the ocean, when you look down on a lovely beach with all the scalloped waves of sand below you… and in the troughs of the ocean’s passing, you see millions upon millions of cigarette butts. Try scuba diving some time somewhere where the currents are mostly onshore. It’s RIDICULOUS.

OK, off the soap box. I love the show. Keep it up.
September 25, 2007

Kevin
QOTD: line in the sand – the category of ‘dessert wine’, and the unusually high scores they can hold, for what doesn’t excite me nearly as much as a far lower score on a red wine.
September 25, 2007

Eric
QOTD: Web / Wine 2.0. Why is it so damn difficult to convince people (with money) that things (business)aren’t done the same way today as they were in the 1970s?
September 25, 2007

Billr
Great show…Keep them a coming…..

QOTD: Line in the sand…9 out of 10 news stories are crap, negative and depressing bad news. Why can’t we have and equal amount of good and bad news….it drives me to drink.
September 25, 2007

jcbphd
Like Momma always said, “If it’s brown, flush it down.”

QOTD: Given the presence of measurement error, I find any hard and distinct line in the sand, whether it’s a standardized test score, p-value, grade, poll, etc. to be quite arbitrary. There is no reason to say with any amount of confidence that there is a clear and distinct difference between someone who scores x versus someone who scores x plus or minus one.
September 25, 2007

TROC
There was a time when I too wouldn’t touch a 89 point wine. Since listening to you for the past year or so, I’ve changed. I now buy wine by the grape and region that I happen to be into at the time. If I’m in a Pinot Noir stage (like right now) I’ll try many California labels then switch to France and so on. Thanks for making this hobby fun again, I was getting way too serious, and there ared plenty of good 85,86,87.88,89 point wines out there.
September 25, 2007

Jon B.
Great show. I’ll have to admit that I do look at scores alot, but i’m really just using them as reference points and I find that my palate differs greatly from alot of wine critics.In my eyes 89 is agreat score. QOTD I’m drawing the line right now . My Cincinnati Bengals better put a complete game together, in all three phases, against the Pats this week or I’m going to take a week off from watching them…My heart can’t take it any more. Thanks Gary and WLTV crew.
September 25, 2007

Nate
Stupid question…. Why don’t you ever ‘cleane your palette’ between wines? Especially after eating sauerkraut and strawberrys….
September 25, 2007

yowens
QOTD: A p-value of 0.05. I mean come on, you’re telling me that 0.06 means nothing! You’re crazy.
September 25, 2007

MikeB
The bottle of Miguel Torres Syrah Reserva 2003 that is linked to the winelibrary websit from the tasting video is not the same that is shown on the tasting video.
September 25, 2007

getmeacab
OK I confessâ€¦ I donâ€™t buy 89 point wines. I typically search for 90+ points or 87- wines. Yes I know point systems SUXâ€”but they work. Hereâ€™s why:
If a wine gets a 90+ and cost under $20 it will fly off the shelves so you better buy more when you can.
87- wines typically sit on the shelves forever so if you like it you can buy more whenever you want.

Iâ€™ve found that Wine Spectators has really loosened their standards the last 3 years. Iâ€™ve never had so many bad 90+ wines before. Tasting notes are a lot more useful than scores but I have to admit Iâ€™ve never tasted currant much less cassis. And unlike Gary, I donâ€™t have to guts to taste chalk or graphite.

QOTD for Gary: Have you ever put pickles on your (cold) pizza?
September 25, 2007

Dr. Mike
QOTD: Standardized test scores for college, graduate school, law school, med school ect. admission. many schools just through out applications if they don’t meet a certain standardized test score, regardless of other credentials.
September 25, 2007

Harley Stan
Great show today, it was interesting that the Chilean wine was thin, I just had a Chilean merlot last weekend that I thought was very thin and unimpressive for what I think merlot should be.
QOTD- line in the sand, Robert Parker being the only wine critic and what he says is gospel, it drives me crazy.
September 25, 2007

Cajun Wino
Gary, 13th man on a BASKETBALL team. I wanna play in that league. Thanks for the insight.
September 25, 2007

Dominus
Nice show and congrats to the Jets!

QOTD: Line in the sand? The only one I have is the stinking & cheatin’ Patriots.
September 25, 2007

RonC
Really good show. And thanks for putting up the links. Perhaps you can ask Kara to be a guest on your next palate training show.

I not against try wines rated in the high eighties. I really enjoy the Te Kairanga Pinot Noir. It’s not the best pinot I ever drank, but it’s always satisfying and an excellent wine to drink socially.
September 25, 2007

1whitetree
“Peaches and Diesel” is a great Eric Clapton song from the Slowhand album.
September 25, 2007

KruszControl
Gary, you seem like you’ve been getting down on the points lately. I think that you should definitely keep using them because tasting notes with a score are more useful than just tasting notes. As we taste wines that you taste and talk about, we start to understand how your pallet relates to ours. You might say something tastes exactly like peaches, but I get a much stronger pineapple, or you say green peppers but I get red peppers. So tasting notes can be just as misleading as scores at times. However, if I start to get an idea for what you taste and how it relates to what I taste, then your opinion starts meaning more to me because I know what I am getting into; I know if I will like it. But you might give nearly identical tasting notes to several different wines. Points give us a scale to measure the intensity and integration of those flavors. We might have two wines that taste like apples to you, and lets say our pallets are the same on that and I know I would probably get apples as well, and we both like apples. That is when a score really helps, because if we have two wines that taste like green apples, but one has a much more intense, smooth, better integrated apple, then a great way to communicate that is by giving one a 92 and one an 88.

Summary for those that don’t like to read: Tasting notes combined with scores are far better indicators about what to expect from a wine than either by themselves!
September 25, 2007

GR8Wine
Nice Episode. Very educational and lot’s of wine. I don’t know about lines in the sand – I’m pretty tolerant about almost everyting until it comes to threatening the freedoms of our American way of life.
I like it when you taste a wide diversity of wines. Keep it up.
September 25, 2007

Plminer
Insightful show GV, well done, very enjoyable .
QOTD: Republican vs. Democrat! Why would you limit yourself like that? Vote for who the best candidate is regardless of their race, creed, sex or political label.
And I also agree with the restaurant mark-ups, people need to start breaking the mold on that one, waaaay over it.
September 25, 2007

Robert Howells
Gary,

I think points are important if you are buying wine to cellar for many years. The critics have done their homework and really only want to help the consumer. Robert Parker has been 90% accurate with his scoring over the years even after revisiting and re-tasting wines. Who else can claim that? What is all the fuss about, if you don’t like points then don’t look at them. For some people the 100 point system is very helpful in choosing the right wines and with todays prices we need all the help we can get. PS It is nice to have the Canadian dollar at par with the US so I can finally get some great deals while visiting.
September 25, 2007

Dave Canada
I am an 88 and 89 point buyer for all the reasons that you noted….I buy on style not ratings. I am an old world dude so a Brunello or Vino Nobile, or Bordeaux or whatever is my style of wine so if the price is right, I go.
QOTD – Cars…people buy for name and not quality…come on, a friend of mine’s Dad just bought a Bentley….$500,000CAN for a damn car? that is all about status sorry.