Galloni and 19 Napa Reviews

I am not a subscriber but have heard that a few producers did not get very good reviews - and I saw on FB one producer, working with Dr. Crane, Las Piedras, To Kalon, etc, who got a series of sub 80 scores for their wines.

Anyone care to share more info on this and other producers who may have not done well? Really curious to hear how this may have come about.

Cheers.

Sounds like we wonā€™t see shelf talkers at the total wine on those sub 80 scores.

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100pts 2019 - Futo 5500ā€™, Senegal Estate Cab Franc OV, Colgin Cariad/2018, Bella Oaks, Kapcsandy Rapszodia, Screaming Eagle, 2018 Tor Black Magic/Beckstoffer To Kalon, 2018 Accendo, 2018 Blankiet Mythicvs, 2018 Promontory, 2018 Sloan.

Lot of 99ā€™s like 2019 Scarecrow, 2018 Spottswoode

98+ 2018 MacDonald, Harlanā€¦2019 MacD 98ptsā€¦2019 Rivers Marie Herb Lamb/Terraces 98ptsā€¦2018 Kongsgaard Judge Chard 98pts.

Stewart Cellars got bashed across the boardā€¦84-78ā€¦some 2018 even showing ā€˜advancedā€™ already.

2018 Cade CS Reserve and 2018 Kongsgaard CS got called out for smoke taint and ?pts.

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Yes, it was bracing to see $300 wines with scores in the low 80s. Mainly, low scorers were characterized as overripe, over-oaked crap. He also complained about the tannins in many wines.

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The whole Stewart Cellars thing seems very odd. For their 2018 Beckstoffer lineup, Wine Advocate, Jeb, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast gave them all 92-98pt scores. Quite the disparity to Antonioā€™s 78, 79pt scores.

Scores aside, how do four publications all align, and the fifth be so far to the other end? It seems four agreed on some degree of high quality where the fifth found them borderline repulsive.

Itā€™s refreshing to see this. The trend for ratings to be on a 10-15pt scale has only gotten worse.

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Myriad and Quivet did not fare well with their scores

I havenā€™t looked at Stewart score from Jeb but if they are around 92 that isnt exactly a rave from him. i think 5% of his most recent 2019 reviews were below 92ā€¦(I am a subscriber and i like his notes but its all relative)

Any score at 80 or below from any reviewer is usually a ā€˜statementā€™ of some kind.

Cheers

I donā€™t drink much Cab so I rarely look at the scores, but this statement confuses me unless people have gotten used to high 90s being the norm. Myriad had an average of 93+ over nine wines, with two at 96. Quivet did have an 88 but the average over four wines was just under 91. Definitely not the highest out there but in the past that would have been nothing to sneeze at.

Thatā€™s certainly interesting. The 2019 Quivet LPV was one of the best wines I tried last year. CT notes for many of the Myriad/Quivet Beckstoffer vineyard bottlings suggest the exact opposite of Galloniā€™s view.

I normally trust Galloni, so not sure what to make of this.

compared to Jebā€™s glowing reviews (100,99,99,98ā€¦nothing below 94) AG leveled the wines differently. I think Mike produces fun wines but i would tend to agree with AG for my palate

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Jeff,

Great points. I think that folks have just gotten used to such incredibly high scores that when a producer that they like is used to getting 95+ scores and gets a 91, something is ā€˜not rightā€™.

That said, I tend to believe reviewers do look at what other reviewers give the same wine - and are probably hesitant to go very far afoot. Has SQN ever received a score below 90 on ANY of their wines from ANY reviewer? Curious . . .

The other thing that everyone here needs to understand that the setting and manner in which these reviews are conducted may not be ā€˜identicalā€™. Perhaps one reviewer is doing tastings at home and only tasting X number of wines, whereas another reviewer is tasting wines in another setting and tasting XX number of wines per setting. This most likely will affect results. And what about timing of tastings? In some cases, there may be months difference in when the wines are being tasted - and this certainly can lead to different results.

Cheers.

Larry - re SQN question, the answer is yes Stephan Tanzer, Robert Parker & wine spectator

96 is the highest score heā€™s ever given a Myriad wine. I thought two 96s plus two 94s for the 2019s was pretty solid.

Agree Quivet getting an 88 and a 90 is probably pretty disappointing for them.

Unlike Jeb, it seems AG tends to score the high intensity wines (ā€œfull throttleā€ or ā€œsuper ripeā€ in his words) a few points lower.

Jeff,

Really? Anytime in the last decade?

Cheers

Larry,

Thatā€™s an interesting take. I have found just the opposite - that reviewers donā€™t look at what other reviewers write.

Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company
Beau Marchais Wines

Maybe Galloniā€™s taste is changing away from the prevalent Napa style?

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What to make of it is Dave is wrong, at least when it comes to Myriad

I always thought that anything below 90 was the kiss of death, especially with bottles costing multiple hundreds of dollars.

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