Great episode about the differences in the ratings. In the restaurant industry we experience the same concept of discrepencies in ratings. Each publication/reviewer can have broad differences in their review of the same restaurant. At the end of the day, once again, everyone has a different palate and we have to trust our own palates. All I can say is Thank God were are not all alike!!!

QOD: Like others, need a video camara to tape it…let’s see what Santa brings me. I’d like the camara so that I can send in an intro BUT I’d like a JETS win against the Dirty Fish even more! I’ve always been a GIANTS fan. With their horrible performances and “A Little Bit of You” I’m converting, I think. Don’t tell anyone.

My question to you: What wine stands out to you immediately as tasting like “Dirty, Dirty Fish”?

Hey Gary,
Another cool episode. It doesn’t surprise me that WS and WE rate the same wines very differently-just compare their top 100 each year. I do find that I often agree with WE as you did (except for one) today. It seems like the person you disagree with the most is Robert Parker-at least in the 20 or so episodes that I have watched.
QOTD-still waiting for that video camera (maybe this christmas ?)

Gary, loved the WE vs. WS mano a mano comparison. As you know, I am a “recovering wine critic” (having edited WE 1988-98, before they went in-house with ratings. My issue today is this: considering that there are almost always going to be discrepancies in scores, when are you going to stop using only the “best” numbers and instead just present them all. I will always consider ratings suspect, but if you choose which numbers to show, you are essentially making your own agenda even more suspect. Someday we will evolve to the point where peple accept that ratings are nothing more than PREFERENCE (as opposed to an objective measure of quality). Until then, and as long as retailers like you stress 90+, we are encouraging pure laziness on the part of critics. If they are truly so good, their prose should stand alone, without numbers. Ironically, your verbal prose is better than whoever the mags put out there anyway. But you undercut your own authority by relying on their hopeless ratings systems.

Somebody I know actually rated JL at 67 recently.

gotdamn the Ehlers is sold out! getting anymore?

QOD: No moula for a camera… spent it all on wine….. sorry!

Oh man. My favorite part is the nose that was like a forest with…you know…”rattlesnakes and bears.”

I guess Gary has something new to try next time he does a palate episode.

Oh, and QOTD:
I get my camera over winter break, you’ll have Winelibrary TV: College coming your in mid-to-late January.

Dugg brought me here, but you made me stay. 🙂 Great site. I’m officially hooked.

Loyal viewers will enjoy a little inside joke in this episode. On Friday’s show, when Gary tastes white pepper, he accidentally gets some in his eye. Today, when tasting the first wine, as soon as he says it has a white pepper note, he reflexively rubs his eye. I laughed–maybe he’s created a Pavlovian response in himself with bad memories of pepper!

This episode is one of my favorite. Lots of cabernet s., one of my favorite.. good choice of wine

Hi Gary,

these ratings were from Jim Laube of Spectator since they were all California. Outside of Shafer, who he has canonized, he has been killing California product especially the 2003s. My point is that this performance is not Spectator reflective, but recent Laube work.

We are both rooting for the Patriots this weekend, Go Pats!

This was a great show! Keep it up.

Karl B.

Dude you have the best job on Earth…I bet you love trying all thoose great wines…I loved this episode due to the fact that Robert Young is a personal friend of mine. I thought you were right on the money with your review… Robert and a crew of about 10 of us get togther once a month or so and do a wine tasting bible study…I know it sounds funny, but it more like a reason to kick the girls out of the house and have a guys night…We eat amazing food, discuss wine and puff on cigars…It is great…If your ever in Northern Cali…ie Santa Rosa look me up…We would love to have you come by and give us your thoughts…Later Van-ner

Gary,
One of the years best episodes…. I don’t know who Joe Mars is but you shoud send him a ccouple bottles of wine for all the incremental business he helped you generate. The comparisons idea is great. Next time, reverse and TRY to fine WS above WE.
Thanks for all the great shows.

Mark S.

Gary,

Nice episode again …. OK, it rocks !! I’ve been a ratings hound for a long time because I don’t have a great job like yours. I can’t try even a small percentage of all the latest wines. I won’t give up the ratings but it’ll sure make me think twice. I was very disappointed with the Mt. Eden, it’s been a fav of mine since the 1993. Hope they turn it around.

Gary,

I have been a lurker since episode #5, so I’m finally getting in on this episode. Let me make a couple of my own observations. I really give the Wine Enthusiast very little credit for their scores. They don’t have a track record of consistency in their scores. Also, and please don’t take offense, I generally do not give critics who also retail wine that much weight (though you are gaining ground my friend) as there is a serious conflict of interest. I feel, and this episode confirmed it, that the Wine Enthusiast has a greatly inflated scoring system compared to either the Advocate or the Spectator. Thanks for the vCast and congrats on being named the Time Magazine “Person of the Year”!!!

Andy Compton
Anchorage, Alaska

I need the equiptment, would love to be in a intro, but still using 8MM vide recorder

Gary,

Ehlers Estate totally rocks. Their 2002 Estate Merlot is probably the best merlot I have ever had in my life. I think it was in the WS Top 50 last year. On top of that, it was totally reasonable (around $30 a bottle). If anyone out there can find it, seek it out!!!!

Wine Ratings. Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator Donâ??t Agree. – Episode #149: Great episode. Here is another instance of a wide range in ratings. Havens Bourriquot Napa Valley 2001: Spectator (Laube) 67, Wine Advocate (Parker) 90, IWC (Tanzer) 91-94. I got a bottle of this from a monthly wine club I was in. Had to taste it! Result – I ordered another 6 bottles. My tastes were with Parker and Tanzer. I don’t know where the Spectator is at times anymore. This is not the first time I’ve experience this kind of range in ratings. One doesn’t live and die by the ratings, but they are an indicator. I tend to go more with who distributor is , the vintage and the winery. Then comes the ratings from the pros. Although I do aligne with Parker and will buy solely on his rating for a wine that I am other wise unfamiliar with. Keep up the good work – Gary.

loved your videos, saw your ad in the LA TIMES

I love how excited you got over the “black raspberry” reference on the Robert Young. I totally went and bought some red currant jelly and am tasting it every day since that episode. Maybe next week I’ll get black currant. Too bad that Ehlers is waaay out of my price range, I’m still waiting for the best wines under $8 episode. As for the QOTD, I think sometime over the summer me and the boys of lambda chi alpha will hook you up with a SWEET intro video.

Found you in the LA Times. You have an incredibly unique approach to getting regular people to trust their own palate in evaluating wines that work for them – sounds simple, but some people just need to be “nudged” in the right direction. How 2 respected publications can have such varying opinions makes you think there may be something else behind their ratings other than the actual taste of the wines themselves. Keep it up – I’ll be back for MORE!!

So, a wine that tastes like rotten green peppers and has a finish that “tastes like crap” scores 82 points from GV. Curious. One wonders what a wine has to taste like to get a bad score.

Seems like GV uses a 20-point scale, not a 100-point scale.

This is probably one of if not my favorite episode!

Qotd: I sent in two seperate videos on 2 seperate occasions – 1 10 seconds long and the other was about 5 minutes long! So I delivered but did Gary play them – answer sports fans – NO! And my precious baby girl was extremely disappointed her “I brought the thunder in my pants” line didn’t make the show. Probably because of the Sideways book – oh well, I did what I could….no love from the GV, not even a keep trying?…..cold blooded GV! 😉

The market lacks the transparency in wine ratings and wine pricing. Wine producers and wine merchants know a great deal about them. On the other hand, the public in general has no way of knowing or determining the ratings and pricing on the spot, while buying wine at the store or over the net.

As a result, the wine merchant has an upper hand in these transactions and can induce the buyer into buying a low ranking wine or grossly overpriced wine. Often, we see wine bottles prominently for sale at a local store at say, $25 a bottle. A quick check shows that its â??street priceâ?? is only $8.

If the wine industry was regulated same way as, say, debt or equity markets, you would see a lot of wine dealers and wine merchants behind bars.

Well, the industry is not regulated and you and I are taken to the cleaners every day.
This site is designed to level the playing field. Next time you buy a bottle of wine check WineRank.com on your cell or PDA for prices and wine ratings.

The website uses a 100-Point Wine Rating Scale. Ratings, directly or indirectly, are based on chance and probability. There is a continuum of wines from exceptionally good to good, so-so, to just awful and vinegar. A scale that doesnâ??t incorporate these extremes simply doesnâ??t do justice to wine. As a matter of fact, even the best and the most expensive wines degrade with time and go to wine hell â?? the vinegars. Some wines take 100 years to get there, some are born that way.

To ignore the universe of wine ratings and to focus only on the upper part of the rating scheme is just plain wrong.

We’re attempting to right the wrong. We give you the real prices. And we give you a true 100-Point Wine Ratings Scale.