Matt Skinner who is a big mate of the extremely popular TV cook Jamie Oliver here in the UK is now an international joke. But to be fair his audience perhaps doesn’t give a stuff as they, on the main, wouldn’t know the difference.
The story then hit some wine bulletin boards and blossomed to this Decanter article… http://www.decanter.com/news/291766.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“However there are some releases that are consistent from year to year, and as popular, good value and accessible wines I want to include them because I know that my readers will appreciate them. In order to do so I include non-specific tasting notes based on the current and previous year’s vintage, focusing more on basic flavours and compatibility with food.”
I think you could say that about a broad range of wines (especially in the under $15 range) from SOME wine regions, primarily warmer ones. There are quite a few wines from, say, Salento, Sicily or Spain that you could honestly have reprinted the reviews from 2001 for every vintage since (they just harvested earlier in '03 and '09). A lot of Aussie stuff too I would think, no? And also things like Murrietta Old Vines (sp?) and other solid budget range California bottlings…
I’m talking about vintage dated wines where nearly every vintage is the same. The odd hailstorm aside, vintages are not a big deal in many places that make good quality, food and wallet friendly wines.
Making up a tasting note is super shady - but I don’t see the problem in recommending a wine one has not tasted. I have not tasted 2007 Beaucastel but I would not think twice before I suggest it to Rhone lovers etc.
And I can tell you without hesitation that the 2012 Salento Rosso Solise from Lomazzi & Sarli will be soft, round, meaty and delicious and the 2019 Bodega Lurton Mendoza Pinot Gris will be rich and fruity with good acidity to balance it.
depends for me whether he’s clear that it’s not really a tasting note. Roberto’s right that you can write a note on some lower end wines that’s of the form “This wine is very consistent from year to year and has [insert typical flavors and aromas for the wine (e.g. Murietta, etc)]” To the degree that someone is looking more for a type of wine than anything and they’re not wine geeks but people who like to keep a case or so of house wine around… meh.
Now, if he pretends that his note is a tasting note on the particular vintage of a particular wine… that’s just silly. I guess, though, that there are a lot of people who aren’t into wine and just want to know some reliably good wines of various types. Imagine yourself as one of those people and you walk into the typical supermarket… and there are hundreds of wines there…
I remember when I got started in this passion, and poking around Bordeaux, and read a note in the NY Times by Eric Asimov, stating that year-in, year-out Larose Trintaudon was a very reliable choice.
Trouble was, the current vintage on the market was the 1997.