Wine, Music & all that
The Blind Tasting
(By Michael Tabone)
The father of modern Bordeaux and to a certain extent, all of today’s wines died a couple of months ago. His name was professor Emile Peynaud. I had never had the pleasure of meeting him but I know many of his students. They talk of him with so much love and passion that I feel like I knew him.
One of his big hates was the scoring of wine. His objection was based on the fear that this would naturally lead to more concentrated wines probably at the expense of balance and typicity. As these scoring sessions are generally held in short, generally blind tastings of a large number of wines, his predictions did not take long to materialize. Heavier, fuller and richer wines started being made in search of higher points which for the ‘score aficionados’ meant easy recognizable good wine !!!!!!!!!!! and for the wineries’s accounts, bigger profits.
The most recent and controversial example of how scores have led to an ever increasing search for more and more concentration were the initial reports from Bordeaux about Chateaux Pavie 2003. Pavie has a long history of elegant, fine, food friendly wines that were loved and admired much before ‘wine scores’ became important. Recently the Chateau was sold and a new strategy in wine making was adopted. This new mentality brought with it higher scores and of course the inevitable higher prices. Scoring the 2003, Robert Parker who generally tastes multiple vintages when visiting a chateau, gave it a very high score calling it the most impressive Pavie he had ever tasted. Jancis Robinson, an equally influential wine writer and in my opinion the world’s leading wine commentator is someone who knows Pavie very well. Her comments about the same wine were something along these lines ‘One of the most ridiculous wines I have ever tasted. Reminding me more of a late harvest, over blown Zinfandel than a Cru Classe Bordeaux’!!!
I will not be shocking anyone by saying that I admit to side with Jancis’s opinion but please allow me to take the discussion further and question the usefulness of blind and to a certain extent all tastings of this sort.
Tastings, blind or not, can be useful for various reasons. For winemakers, tasting is an essential part of the job. For wine buyers this is useful in finding value. For the amateur it is a tool for finding wine he or she likes or to learn and get to know particular wines or regions.
However in the main I find that tastings, especially blind tastings have very little use and by nature raise serious questions as to their appropriateness. My objections to these type of tastings have various angles. To start with, it is my humble opinion that it is not possible to pass judgment on a wine, with a sniff, swirl and sip, all in a couple of seconds. Most of you will agree with me that wine, especially great wine, evolves and changes during it’s lifetime and more importantly in the glass waiting to be drunk. How many times have you opened a wine, thought it was not good and after a while it opens into something spectacular? Or the opposite. How many bottles have you opened with a fantastic appearance but very quickly disappear into nothing? Wine makers themselves acknowledge the fact that most traditional wines have bottle variations.
So, you might be wondering. Where is all this heading?
My opinion is that we should be celebrating diversity and originality. We should take our time to get to know wines and regions well enough so that we can learn to enjoy their typicity. This encourages and promotes the need for research into ‘terroir’ and investment in know how and practices that enhances this diversity, instead of destroying it by encouraging winemakers in search of points and fortune to copy or emulate classic wines.
For their sake and ours let’s give a miss to wine challenges and competitions trying to find wines like the ‘Best Bordeaux Blend’, ‘Best Rhone Look Alike’ or the ‘Best Cabernet Sauvignon’. Logic tells me that the best Bordeaux Blend will come from somewhere in Bordeaux and not from somewhere in Chile and that a look alike, by nature is a fake. I tell you, if copying is the best form of flattery……well how many Champagnes, Chablis, Ports are copied in the world? Also practice and past experience tells us that there is good Cabernet Sauvignon made in most countries and all have a particular ‘something’ which distinguishes them from the others. Equally I have no doubt that the best Chilean wine will come from Chile and not from Pauillac.
As we all know wine is very subjective and opinions do vary, even amongst experts, as explained above but in this regard there is no subjectivity involved. In fact the very nature of such events and of course the hype and publicity, which is really why they are held and published in the first place, stifle and suffocates that very subjectivity. If you remove this and diversity from the world of wine…………Well it is no longer wine like I know and feel certain most of us like.
Finally, getting to know a wine is one of the big pleasures of wine drinking. I know that most of us wine writers do use the term ‘tasting’ quite a bit but I suppose we shy away from admitting that we do drink a lot. No, it is not possible to know a great wine from a sip. Not even from two. Let alone passing a definitive judgment on it when we know that we can influence a large number of wine lovers with our comments and verdicts. Scoring wine takes that responsibility a step higher, a step that is too high for anyone to bear responsibility. In the wine world I meet many people and even writers who spend hours talking about wines they have had a sip of. Very often talking about wines, someone else had a sip of!!
I admit I am not one of them. Here I am open hearted, joyfully and shamelessly admitting and proclaiming. I know Chateau Belair. I can recommend it. I drank quite a lot of it!!!!!!!!!!!
Music & Wine
There is no doubt that good wine tastes better when drunk with good company, in a nice place with good food. I can recall many occasions on nice quite evenings at home calling friends to join me upon finding a really great bottle. An occasion that comes to mind was the first time I tasted ‘Mas de Daumas Gassac 98’. Upon opening the bottle, my wife and I realized that this was something special. We drank one glass each and put the rest in a half bottle to share with friends who were coming for dinner the following evening.
I suppose it’s like discovering a nice band or hearing a nice piece of music. You would want to tell the world about them. Do you remember when U2 exploded on the music scene after Live Aid in the eighties? They were so fantastic that everyone wanted to tell everyone else about them. What about Joseph Calleja. Very much the same thing.
Sharing wine or music must be one of life’s greatest pleasures. Listening to a recording or drinking a bottle of wine at home is one, but attending a life performance is another thing altogether. I suppose this takes the sharing to a higher level. Not only because you are in the company of many more people but more importantly all of those present have the ability to join the artist, life in spirit. In wine terms this is possible too. Enjoying wine in the presence of the people that grew it , can be considered as a live performance. It is taking the enjoyment of wine a step higher.
There are not many occasions in Malta where all of the above comes together, however in the beginning of December there is one such occasion. Starting on the 7th of December ‘La Jurade de Saint-Emilion’ which is the historic body that signifies all that is cultural and historic about wine, are visiting Malta for 3 days of festivities celebrating the joys of music, wine, food and good company.
The programme starts with a piano recital by Brian Schembri at the Manoel Theatre on the 7th . Brian has chosen a fantastic programme which includes Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. This event sees Brian returning to our National Theatre as a pianist after an absence of 14 years. The recital starts at 7.30pm after which there will be a reception (lots of food) with of course, St Emilion wine at ‘Buko’ the new wine bar of the Theatre. Tickets for the recital can be bought at the Theatre or on www.manoeltheatre.com.
For tickets of the reception see end of article.
On the 9th of December there is a tutored wine tasting of 10 wines representing the various ‘Terroirs’ of Saint-Emilion. This is going to be held at the Radisson in St Julians at 11.30am. There will be a finger buffet afterwards.
The 10th brings the visit to a close ‘a la grande’. ‘The Banquet of Friendship’ is going to be held at the La Vallette Hall – Mediterranean Conference Centre – Valletta. The proceedings starts off at 7.00pm with an intronisation ceremony. This will be followed by a champagne reception and a first class meal with 10 of the region’s best wines.
At this point I have to inform you that I am a member of the Jurade of Saint-Emilion and hence partly responsible for organizing these events. In any case, they should be 3 days of fun, good wine, music and company.
Happy drinking
For reservations for the reception, tasting and comments mike@michaeltabone.com
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