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.

I’m officially no longer a lurker, so I’m going to try to answer QoTD’s, etc. I have to admit that I’ve *not* bought bottles of wine after seeing them rated 89 :-/ … But, today’s show has convinced me that’s ridiculous.

QoTD: I’m really sick of the Mac / PC divide. Computers *all* suck. End of story.

I agree with Nyquil: It’d be great if you do a boxed-wine show, in the same way that the Trader Joe Charles Shaw show was great — it’s something I sneer at just a *little* bit, and I’d be interested to see if there is anything worthwhile that comes in a box.

Oh, also: I’m a grad student … and I feel a bit slighted that the CKC’s get shout outs all the time but we GSC’s (the grad-student crew) don’t get mentioned!

Gary, the QOTD is so simply and perfectly analogous my favorite sport, baseball. That’s right, our national pastime is a dead on metaphor for today QOTD answer re: “lines in the sand.” More specifically, PITCHING! The difference between a baseball pitcher that throws 90 miles and hour and a pitcher that throws 89 miles an hour IS the difference between an 89 point wine and 90 point wine. Even the price points of what you pay for the 89 point “pitcher” vs. the 90 point “pitcher” is the same. Yet professional baseball scouts, GMs, and owners continue to put that extra premium on the 90 point label – much like the wine industry.

Great episode, GV. I’m on my way to raid the fridge for saurkraut-covered strawberry.

QOTD: Line in the sand, as your sister I work in the public school system, the benchmarks for “no child left behind” one point can send a school into a tail spin.

QOTD: A good friend of mine is vegetarian bordering on vegan (mostly for health reasons, he says). He likes to nag me with all the things I should do to be healthier: stop eating meat, eat less dairy, various other dietary changes—and that’s all fine and well, except that he smokes. HE SMOKES! Cigarettes, apparently, are fine, but a steak will kill you. That’s one of the most ridiculous lines in the sand I’ve ever known.

Points, & another line in the sand: I’m frustrated by people who buy wine based mostly (and sometimes solely) on points. I’m talkin’ about folks who go by points instead of tasting notes. Example: One day in a wine shop, a guy and his girlfriend standing near me were listening to recommendations by an in-store wine consultant. He described the flavor profiles of 4 sauvignon blancs (vegetal/grassy vs. mineral/dry/stone fruit vs. hyper-fruity vs. buttery-oaky). When he finished, the girl expressed interest in the mineral/stone fruity wine—but then her boyfriend said to the consultant, “well, I’m more into wines rated 90 or 91 or around there, can you show me those?” I wanted to walk over and slap him upside his head.

Eh, I don’t mind points, as long as they come with descriptive tasting notes. It’s the tasting notes I pay attention to.

You’ve made a great point in this show. An 89 or 90 point wine might not be much different…I agree with you that ratings are not Gospel and one should try as much different wines, but hey, let’s face it, a lot of people are on a tight budget and prefer to pick up a recommended wine to increase the chance that they’d like it, especially when checking wines less than 20$.
QOTD: line in the sand: midsize sedans: Accords and Camrys as first choice vs new & better value comers like the Sonata!!
Cheers

GREAT show on Ellen..Just watched from your links…Rocks, bacon, cigars, dirt…what is next? Pee Pee du chat or some little poope action would be fun… 🙂

QOTD: All lines in the sand change with the tides. Is that philosophical enough for you?
All that talk about peach cobbler and mangos and shellfish drives me crazy. Mangos are $1.50 apiece and I’m still buying them. Shellfish are so hard to come by where I live.

I draw the line at paying more than 15 bones for 1 bottle of wine. Ya’ll pay attention to GV.
There are great wines in this price range and after all, it is just fermented grape juice. geeez

I loved the Ellen Show and After show. Really great.

I draw the line when I find an uptight dumbshit…in myself.

Line in the Sand: Light Beer or any other beer where the waste during production is more than the total production of the small brewery. It takes a lot of good beer to make good wine.

I did it! I finally did it. It took me six months, but I went back and watched every single episode, from episode #1 to episode #320, IN ORDER. This is the very first show that I’ve ever seen on the same day that it was posted. And this is my very first post too. I’ve written some emails to Gary, but this post means I am officially no longer a lurker.

Once again, a great show. I actually liked the low key style. Gary’s enthusiasm has slowly built up since the first show, but I think he finally got over the top during the past month or two (and we all know how much Gary’s hates things that are too much over the top — over the top is good, too much over the top is bad).

As for lines in the sand, I think its crazy when people say that they only drink California wine, or only French wine. Similarly, I think its crazy when people say that they only like fruity, new-world wine, or only aged old-world wine. Wine is an adventure. Get out there and try something new. I’ve even had wines from the Republic of Georgia. I like it when wines taste different than I expect.

Great show, I actually enjoy the excitement of the 89 pointers, sort of a gamble to see how they’ll turn out.

QOTD: PRICE- 2 cents per mL (15 bones for 750mL) if I’m grabbing something semi-randomly, 4 if I’ve read a review and think I’ll enjoy it. Celebratory occasions warrant no cap.
QOTD: POINTS- None. What do I care if someone else had a long day and is fed up with something they particularly don’t enjoy… 5 bucks, earthy and smokey but not much there? I’ll have a couple glasses with a bag of BBQ chips and microwavable salisbury steak.

I have the answer to your ratings issues. I must stress that this is my opinion. I find ratings and reviews invaluable. Not because I think they are a literal interpretation of what I should expect, but because I am familiar with the critic. Movies, for example, I love David Denby’s New Yorker reviews and since I am familiar with his writing and have seen many movies he reviews I am able to make better decisions. When he dislikes a film for a particular reason, I know I will love it because I know what he is reacting to. With wine critics, you get to know the critic by comparing the wines you try to the reviews, and after a bit you build some knowledge about what the critic is reacting to. So when you say “OMG it tastes like crap and mushrooms 91++” I know exactly what you mean. On the other hand if you said, “No ratings but it tastes like crap and mushrooms.” I have no clue of the degree to which you like it. So reviews, scores, etc are nothing without knowledge of the critic. The way to look at scores is the following: you are giving a quantified level of PERSONAL recommendation to the reader/viewer. The thing to stress is that its a numerical representation of your degree of enthusiasm for the wine and says nothing about what someone else would say. Just encourage viewers to get familiar with your reviews so they know what to expect. Simple… even if the damn post was so long, sorry. Keep the scores!

Social/Cultural take on QOTD: Conservatives with their “You’re for the war or against the troops” and Liberals with their “You’re for universal health care or you have no heart.”

Wine take on QOTD: I’ve never seen anybody ever give a Pinotage higher than a 91 or 92. For me, it’s my favorite varietal and I’ve had one I’d give at least a 94 that was only $15. Why can some varietals get only up to a certain score while others are allowed to be in the 95-100 range? It’s silly.

haha nice to see the 2 buck chuk episode at the special selection at the right of the screen… ahaha
QOTD: as a political scientist student I see A LOT of that at least in mexican politics… sometimes rights and lefts take too far away directions on subjects where it’s crystal clear the best was to go………..
HOHOOOOOOOOO SEE YA TOMORROW GARY!

haha nice to see the 2 buck chuk episode at the special selection at the right of the screen… ahaha
QOTD: as a political scientist student I see A LOT of that at least in mexican politics… sometimes rights and lefts take too far away directions on subjects where it’s crystal clear the best was to go………..
HOHOOOOOOOOO SEE YA TOMORROW GARY!

The linked wine to this video, Miguel Torres Syrah Reserva 2003, is not the same as tasted on the video. Did you taste or link the wrong wine?

Nice to see the NZ wine up there. Those guys do some great whites (although, as you said, every wine tastes great on vacation). Pinot from NZ, I’ll see for myself. FYI, and though I’m sure this message will be ignored by most in favor of posting their own message, a solid 88-88+ or 89 for some people, Cycles Gladiotor 2003 Pinot Noir used to cost me 9$ a bottle when I lived in Cali 4 or 6 months ago. It’s a good wine. Gawd I miss Cali. Try it. It’s cheap Safeway wine (sadly I have to special order it in Colorado).
Gary, if you read these at all, do you have any thoughts on Aspen/Vale wine festivals? I’m afraid they’re total garbage after tasting some colorado wines which try to be fruit bombs but languish in their own urine of fruity-watery garbage. Let me know.
Any chance you’re going to Napa in the post Thanksgiving weekend? I’d love to shake hands if nothing else. I’ll even go back to my home town Frisco and visit crushpad and buy a case of GV/Wine Library Cab if that’s what it takes. I just can’t stand how much your show has revitalized my interest in wine (that’s a good thing). Great job man. I said it before, but thank you. I love that I have not bought the same bottle twice since watching your show and I thank you for it. Keep it up man.
Mind doing a hard liquor episode? I have a couple bottles of courvoisier floating about that I’d like to know what you think of before I share it with my jack-ass dinner guests. It’s still technically wine, just distilled.

QOTD: My major issue is people not trying new wines. The people that buy one – five brands and nothing else. Or people that rely heavily on others (scores, magazines, wine store owners, clerks, ect) to make their decisions for them. Or worse people that want your help to find something and then don’t want to describe what they like. Or say SOMETHING more than “I like what I like”…..Argh!

QOTD: When I first heard your question of the day I had a few clever responses. Unfortunately, my bottle of brandy has retarded me to the point where my main gripe to tell you about is being an associate vs. fellow of the society of actuaries (SoA). Have you seen ‘About Schmidt’? That movie is Jack Nicholson playing an actuary (which is more or less what I do). He’s well paid because he’s presumably a fellow. My stature as associate earns me 20k less (actual figure) than many of my coworkers. I’ll get my cert eventually but the fact I have the same title as they do after their 20 year careers makes me feel pretty good about myself and mad at the same time. My business dictates that I set probabilities that a given group of fatally ill people will die or stay on claim and take a lot of money away from me. Fortunately, because I shuffle money for a large German company which shall remain unnamed (hint: it’s named after a major German city) I’m not that worried. But, the fact that we draw a line between some types of cancer as fatal and others as financial hassles bothers me; likewise that I’ve taken a few tests or else I’m garbage bothers me. It’s not out of a bleeding heart attitude that I’m complaining – we give eachother high fives when we find out a claimant has died (and there’s an extra 50k or so to our consulting firm not including the claim costs that have disappeared) – my concern comes from the fact that, being a young consulting group, we don’t consider we could ever die of this stuff. That’s my artificial line in the sand that pisses me off.

My main purpose in writing you is that I want to add that my parents, in their latge sixties, love your show since I’ve introduced them to it. It appears you care a lot about your family from watching your show and I wanted to let you know that your show gives me and my parents something two-sided to talk about together (whether this riesling is any good or not). Formerly being part of a 70’s era Napa wine tasting group (commisioned by the Mondavi’s according to them, but they’re getting Alzheimer’s so who knows), they say I watch too much of your show when I talk about good vegetable flavors. According to them, if it tastes like vegetables, 30 years ago in Napa that would have been described as some sort of rotten berry. Figures…

Gary

Te Kairanga winery is in Martinborough, not Marlborough. Martinborough is over the hill from where I live in Wellington in the lower north island. It was the pioneering area for pinot noir in New Zealand back in the 1980s. Love your show by the way.

Loved the hell out of this episode. Watched the ellen thing and the Conan thing, thought Conan was much more responsive as a “victim”.
QOTD: I think the inconsistent and sometimes downright ridiculous liquor laws concerning shipping and sales at “off sale” establishments (ex: grocery stores) would be the line in the sand I most recently despise. Try explaining what “dry time” is to a bunch of old, red-faced booze hounds trying to buy liquor on a lazy Sunday before 10 in the am in the AZ.
MOTD (moral of the day): Some traditions suck.

Just watched you on ellen and that was awesome funny stuff . You Da Man G . The thing with the producer was to funny . Qotd : What line in the sand I do things my way !!! Thanks again Gman .