As I said on the other thread if you had bothered to read instead of blathering again :
All the available content channels are listed here : My Subscriptions - CellarTracker
There are several that are ITB and they are clearly marked as such. Every channel has a ‘Disable’ button to turn them off if that content of is no interest to you.
A.
I find it preposterous that with all that we know, he is listed as a critic.
John Kapon has done more to damage than fine wine industry than any other single individual. He created and funded Rudy, and aided Eric Greenberg as well as a willing vendor.
He should be run out of the industry, not lauded for his actions.
I too have a problem with his notes. The whole sex, women, poop melange in his notes I find distracting (and more than slightly Freudian). But worse than this…we have all had experience with old wines and we know how many of them are “past it”. Cellar tracker has notes on wines from 2000 that are described as “past it” or declining. The fact that he can sit down to a dinner with 25 wines from the twenties and thirties and only one is “corked” tells me something is amiss. I read descriptors like “old sherry cask”, “brown sugar” and “rotting earth” and I see a wine that is oxidized, not 97+ points. Much less any description with “dowager” or “old granny smell” or “cat pee”. He seems to be shilling his own decrepit old offerings…and we think we are getting some rapturous experience when in fact the wine is crap. “In the old days”, people did not sell wines with mid shoulder fills except as curiosities. No one sold 1964 Lafite because it is known to be crap, much less the 1965. But today, thanks to folks like Kapon, anything will be put up for sale and described in rapturous terms so folks pay hundreds of dollars for vinegar. One has only to look at how many black sauternes are offered on WineBid, or use wine-searcher to find 1963 or 1965 Bordeaux. But I digress…
That said, some people do like those flavors and characteristics. They are of course entitled to their opinion, and I’m glad they can enjoy a wine that would make me gag. But taking wine sales as a profession with some sort of quality standard, we have to acknowledge that wines that are fake or in lousy condition are a crap shoot at best, not a romantic dalliance on the Seine with the Mona Lisa (either with or without her poop). We should not perpetuate the old wine myth via his notes without a disclaimer, but that is only my opinion and I don’t see any clear way to do it.
This is what surprises me with extreme old wine drinkers… I have tasted a few myself and we are talking just early 80’s stuff and I have found a decent amount to be past their prime. Then you see someone pop corks on half a dozen- dozen wines from 1960 and older and the wines appear to be in miraculous health. I have seen it first hand with my own eyes (like many of you all have) sitting around a table with (us: 1964 prince merode clos du roi) popped after a grand bordeaux tasting by a generous acquaintance …I am with 4 other tasters, each taster waxing poetically about the wine and it’s nuances… Me? I am just sitting there like I just received the starring role in the twilight zone…this wine was beyond shot, old , dead, dying nuts and rotten mushroom…I didn’t want to offend the guy, he was incredibly generous, but no worries help was on the way!..so here is the hilarious part…a small posse of alpha bordeaux males stop by our table to thank us for coming and to see what we are drinking…my acquaintance pours a small taste for ‘the man’ Stephan von Neipperg…he graciously accepts a taste and then hands the glass back with this comment “it’s a bit too oxidized” …if u could have seen the shock and awe on my acquaintance face… priceless…bahahaha, I was trying everything to keep from laughing.
So maybe JK has a poor palate? (shouldn’t be for he is an expert taster)…looking at the notes…It does appear that JK has great success with older bottles…probably a much better success rate than any of us…but I do notice he disqualifies (the very few) faulty bottles…we may never know
I didn’t even know who he was until this thread was posted. To me…I’d leave it and just ignore the guy. Eric is running a crowd sharing site(that’s what they’re called…right?). There’s no way I would read his review as professional. If you don’t give these things attention…eventually they go away in my book.
I don’t have an issue with the notes. At least they are fun to read. But there is no way he should be highlighted on CT the same way actual critics are. It looks and is ridiculous.
I guess I prefer him not listed as an expert taster, but not sure about the notes… with JK listed as an expert taster they r right in your face…yes, def.fun to read but…
Delist him as an expert taster and the notes get blended in with the others…my opinion is he is not an expert taster and his questionable integrity hurts the site.
I hate to see those notes pulled. Everyone can judge for themselves if they want to pay attention. If Robert Parker’s notes were there (not Eric’s fault), then people on this BB would learn to use the disable function that Andrew mentioned pretty quickly I would think…
This isn’t about him being ITB. I would be fine with this if you would just add this to the disclaimer:
Ken,
There was a complaint it was not marked ITB. And the main point of the graphic is the off-button.
A.
Thank you for that. I have used it for Kapon and for Rimmerman.
Why is it an issue at all? Some people can’t ID TCA and they write notes about forest floor, etc.
You can simply ignore JK’s notes. I don’t get it. On CT everyone is a critic, so who really cares? Is anyone forced to run out and buy those wines because of a JK note? He’d be a billionaire if that were the case.
Plus, how is it possible for Eric to hunt down and eliminate everyone who might post about bottles that may have been compromised in some way, or rather, posts notes that may have been compromised in some way? There are plenty of “professional” critics who are willing to accept bottles and other gifts, and there are plenty of bloggers who accept freebies and post nice notes and other people who visit wineries and get carried away by the moment, etc.
Anyway, Eric would have to eliminate every note regarding a bottle that may have been touched by Rudy or Hardy or other nefarious types as yet unidentified.
I would leave all the JK notes. As mentioned, comedy is fun.
This is a silly idea for more reasons than I care to count. Eric would have to be out of his mind (OK, he is, but for other reasons) to give SELECTIVE negative treatment to Kapon notes. Move along and let this thread die. PLEASE.
I have nothing to add here. Use the DISABLE button if you have an issue please.
Wonderful post, thank you - I will need to look for more of your posts, to be sure.
It appears that perhaps John Kapon was the ‘smartest person in the room’, as to be able to single-handedly create a massive, unrelenting fever for a useless product is quite difficult in an industry where most are quite highly educated. He appears to have done so in spades.
Let it die? No way Jay, any publicity for CT is good publicity. This was just a sneaky idea Eric and I came up with to surreptitiously promote the site!!! (Jk)
Jk = John Kapon? 
So this means all that time he was signing his tasting notes with Just Kidding? Whew.
I’ll never tell!