every smith
  • MS: Max Smith's blog
  • History to the Defeated
  • every smith: independent creative consultants
  • Words: Max - a brief bio
  • Sites to see

Lettres d'Uzès #39: beakers full of the warm south

6/8/2013

21 Comments

 
Picture
It’s the 38ème Foire aux Vins d’Uzès this weekend, and as part of the opening celebrations, there will be tutored tastings of the 45 wines which have won medals in the Concours des Vins this year.

I will be there. Not least because the names of the winners have already been announced, and I agree with virtually none of them.

So I want to know what the judges know that I don’t. I want to know why the wines which I search out for drinking with family and friends and which I regard as both typical of their category and superior in their category have failed to win even a bronze.

(Wine has been produced here since the Middle Ages, but it got VdP status only as recently as 1995, when it split from the Cévennes. Since then, it has been fighting for the next level of recognition. Last month, AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) Uzès was finally signed off in Paris and we should see it on the labels of our local wines next year.)

But what interests me is how these things are judged. How can I, a wine drinker of many years’ standing (and sometimes not standing), with both an enthusiastic amateur and – through Wilde’s - professional interest in wine, be so wrong?

Easily, according to a recent article in The Observer and subsequent discussion in Decanter.

It turns out that even the trained palates of full-time critics with MW after their name are frequently neither correct, nor consistent.

In blind tastings, eminent professional tasters have given “radically different scores” to the same wine from the same bottle within the space of a few minutes.

Of course, wine criticism is the same as other criticism. It is the relationship between the taster and the wine, at a particular time, in a particular space, in a particular context. And that can seldom be replicated precisely, if at all.

We also know that external factors can create a significant effect. A French academic found that labels mattered. A Grand Cru label produced positive reviews; a vin de table label negative reviews. Of course, it was the same wine. Academics in Edinburgh found that playing Jimi Hendrix whilst drinking Cabernet Sauvignon boosted scores by 60%. And so on and so forth: there are many different stories of wine critics getting it wrong.

A typical wine contains 27 organic acids, 23 varieties of alcohol, more than 80 esters and aldehydes, 16 different sugars, and dozens of vitamins and mineral compounds.

That’s not only beyond me. It’s beyond anyone. However sophisticated their palate.

So there is very little science involved in these judgements. What there is, is vast experience of long-term tasting, and a vocabulary which expresses and justifies these judgements.

Tasting wine is subjective. Wine critics are as subjective as the rest of us. But it’s always a good idea to find one with whose judgements and palates one broadly agrees (HRH Jancis and Fiona Beckett to name but two) and use them to do the hard research and prepare short lists.

The problem is, neither have turned their attention to AOC Uzès. At least not yet.

But when they do, I’ll bet they agree with me rather than the local judges of the Concours des Vins.


Today from the everysmith vault: Jimi Hendrix, Night Birds Flying: "You pass me that bottle, and I'll sing y'all a real song." Goes down really well with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

21 Comments
Richard
6/8/2013 08:02:16

I have never really understood the AOC system, except as a guarantee of provenance. Which may be useful but says little or nothing about quality. This is one of your points, I suppose. As for wine critics, I think the Observer piece nailed it. They know about as much as we do, but drink more!

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:49:56

They drink more variety. I of course don't drink any more. (Don't drink any less either!)

Reply
Anders
6/8/2013 08:43:30

Sense that you're quite proud of the AOC for Uzes. All adds to the romance of the maison secondaire, I suppose. Would love to hear of your discussions with the juries soon.

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:51:32

I am proud actually, yes. It's an interesting area, where a number of different appellations meet. What I hope is that Uzès doesn't become a second division clone of CdR.

Reply
Charlotte Ford
6/8/2013 09:36:35

Do you refer to HRH Jancis as in Robinson , Max ? She is much admired in the Ford household as a Goddess. In our own modest wine drinking capacity Ken and myself often to be found in disagreement as to the play on the palate when drinking our first glass from a bottle ,only to find ourselves in full agreement by the end of the bottle. Which is why we concur that many judgements are unreliable. And trust to our own taste in the hope that our friends will enjoy what we offer them ..

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:54:00

It is of course Jancis. But I am increasingly drawn to the recommendations of Fiona Beckett - Winematcher in the Guardian. She recommended a Grateful dead wine the other week! And isn't it great when a second a third glass provokes agreement rather than discord! Best to Ken.

Reply
MichaelMac
6/8/2013 09:55:47

"A typical wine contains 27 organic acids, 23 varieties of alcohol, more than 80 esters and aldehydes, 16 different sugars, and dozens of vitamins and mineral compounds." Where do you get this stuff from? What the hell are esters and aldehydes?

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:55:07

No idea! That's pretty much verbatim from a wine-loving scientist. Will Google and report back!

Reply
Max
11/8/2013 01:37:29

Have now Googled and still have no idea. Suggest you contact your nearest chemistry PhD. For my purposes, content to appreciate that even the simplest wine is highly complex.

Margie Mendell
8/8/2013 03:07:20

You gave me the most delightful breakfast today as I sat reading your latest blog and then several earlier ones while munching on my cereal and drinking my coffee.. So what if the cereal became soggy and the coffee got cold as I didn't want even a nano second of distraction from your thoroughly delightful essays. They are wonderful. You are such fun to read and so interesting. You should, you MUST put these together as a book of essays....Why not??? The photos, reproductions are great and Jill's drawing of Melvyn (Marvin..??) is fabulous.

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:55:38

Thank you. xxx

Reply
CJ
8/8/2013 03:09:13

Not the Hendrix I would have chosen. Just for that line I suppose and why not? Surely almost any wine would taste better with Hendrix as the soundtrack - the final sense.

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 01:57:14

You're right. It was the memory of the line first heard in 1971 which made the choice. But the idea of the final of the senses (sound) being not the clinking of the glasses but Hendrix is good.

Reply
Doctor D
12/8/2013 23:02:17

Per James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem -"I Was There..." ...on the 2nd floor of Sidney, Garden Court, one afternoon in Feb '71. We steamed into Chandler's room who was exulting to all who would give ear over some Neil Young track or other.
"I was there.." when we stuck "Cry Of Love" Side One, Track 4 on the old stereo. Result: instant dumbstruck, drooling surrender along the lines of 'what the f...was that??!!'.. Satisfied that the room had been suitably torched, we retired leaving a few devastated souls to wonder about the sonic rearrangement of their consciousness...happy daze! Another fond Proustian moment from The Memory Chalet...

Allan
8/8/2013 06:57:12

Criticism. It's a discipline which you have touched on previously, and raised the same questions. It's role is to evaluate and thus to help develop a sensibility which contributes to a meaningful life. You will recognise this as sous-Leavis. Although he was concerned with the role of literature, it is equally relevant to the study and 'scrutiny' of any subject. Including I would have though, wine. Not least because good wine is central to living.

Reply
Max
9/8/2013 02:00:01

Leavis on wine is a nice thought. And you're right that Leavis informs much of my thinking. Happy to work my way through the great traditions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, carrying out daily revaluations. But with Uzès, we have some new bearings ... PS. Guessing that the apostrophe is the result of an illiterate and aggressive auto-correct!

Reply
Leon
9/8/2013 12:35:53

Max - after all the grisly stories about trolling that have appeared in the UK press lately, how nice to see that good-natured, civilized debate and comment can flourish on the internet.

I am not qualified to comment on the wines of Uzes - although you will know that I have a high regard for those of the not-so-distant Vaucluse (bag-in-box) that I used to buy in Apt.

Context, as you say, is all-important. I have, for instance, quaffed quite a few glasses of rosé with you and other chums in the S. of F. with great enjoyment. T'ain't the same in the UK though, is it? Nor is pastis. Egalement, Scotch is a different drink on the banks of the Spey than beside the Leam.

Happily, however (and I have a feeling you may agree with me) claret and red and (particularly) white Burgundy seems to hit the spot wherever you are.

Santé to you both.

Léon

Max
10/8/2013 04:46:56

Léon! Good to hear from you. And yes, there seems to be some civilised readers and commentators out there. (Hi everyone!)

This is true. The great wines, those which would surely figure in a Leavisite great tradition, do not require context. Although they will create it in any space at any time. I have high hopes for AOC Uzès but at least one of my preferred vignerons in the area will not participate, in the same way as she ignores CdR. I think many of the best are doing this, in the same way as their Italian counterparts are ignoring their stringent rules which they believe are hindering innovation. But all this conversation calls for a glass. In the UK in ten days or so ....

Reply
Rick Hough
15/8/2013 01:06:53

Great read, as usual. The relentless posturing within this blessed realm could make one turn to whiskey - except the same rebop is infecting the world of John Barleycorn as well. We're left to disregard the experts and spare no effort in tasting for ourselves.
'Always liked "Nightbird" for its remarkable busy-ness

Reply
Max
16/8/2013 01:42:51

Ah yes, the posturing. And in between, each individual's efforts to make their own meaning and judgement. And at the end, there is always whiskey in the jar, and always Hendrix.

Reply
Max
16/8/2013 01:46:19

@DoctorDark: Exactly right. A good day and a revelatory day. Where is Ian now? And did I ever thank you for the Memory Chalet recommendation? I do now.
(The software won't allow more than three comments to each thread, hence this small postcript ... xxx)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Baseball
    Books
    Film
    Food + Drink
    French Letters
    Leamington Letters
    Media
    Music
    People
    Personal
    Politics
    Sport