I think that it is understood that scoring a wine 93 points or 100 points is only for that one point in time. Wines are constantly being rescored. And critics within the same publication and tasting the same wine may score it not just differently but several points apart.
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Best ever? Is wine something like a contest? Chateau a vs Chateau b? Vintage x vs vintage y?
I have a different understanding what love for food and wine means.
Most important for having a wonderful dinner is the right people around the table. If you are in a bad mood the best wine has probably no chance to shine.
In some vintages of the past the likes of 1961 or 1982 a dozen of fantastic wines were produced. Will the 2022 Latour i.e. be “better” as this 2 legends? Who can state this at the moment because the wine is not even in bottle? And what meaning has this “better”? Any wine lover who has an outstanding glass of red or white in front thinking there is probably something better is pitiable.
Not to forget that we talk about individual taste. It is very rare when 10 people are in full agreement when tasting the same wine. So what value has this “better”? Those statements are anything but objective and reliable. The wine must satisfy you and not a critic.
Ok – if not wine drinking but speculation is the goal than things are different.
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This exactly.
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I think it is interesting how few 100 point Burgundies there are, and yet much passion some inspire and how much money it takes to acquire the top names. I have seen plenty of low ninety point wines hit four figures.
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For the 2019 vintage, William Kelley had five 100 point Bordeaux, plus one 99+, and eight 100 point Burgundy, plus two 99+. For the same vintage, Neal Martin had one 100 point Bordeaux and one 100 point Burgundy (the latter is harder to search; he did have two more Burgundies that had 100-point potential); Antonio Galloni added another 100-point Burgundy from his coverage of Leroy to go with the two 100-point Bordeaux. The numbers from reviewers covering both regions are comparable. It’s just that the 100-point Burgundies are essentially unobtainable for most (DRC and Leroy constituting the bulk, with some Dugat-Py and Roumier thrown in).
P.S. Looking forward to seeing some 2022 Bordeaux reviews so we can actually talk about the wines the thread header suggests.
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It has been an interesting discussion considering half are weighting on discussions on price and half are weighting on discussions on scores.
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Too bad all wines aren’t rated on the Burgundy scale 
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Yup. Thread drift is a berserker specialty. Welcome.
You may get your wish and we will have a discussion about the wines, once the critics have had their say, but prices and scores will be an important part of the conversation.
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Further to the price discussion, interesting and timely article on how the 2022 en primeur campaign
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And considering at most 3 people have even tasted the wines !
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Those numbers aren’t remotely comparable. Suppose Latour, Lafite, Mouton, and Margaux each had 40 different owners making 40 different wines, how many 100-point wines would you expect to see then?
I was not that joker, I was kind (prolly drunk when I wrote it…):
You won’t have to wait too much longer
I crunched the numbers and my median score for Burgundy and Bordeaux are within one point.
The strength of Bordeaux has always been obtainable excellence. Bordeaux trying to follow the Burgundian business model won’t work, because it’s a different case.
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Question-
There does seem to be more “small estates” (by Bordeaux standards), like Carmen Haut Brion and Millery that are popping up. We will see that trend continue?
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That’s actually my argument for why the number of high-scoring Napa cabs shouldn’t be surprising. But the point of my post was simply that there are more 100-point Burgundy wines than people seem to think.
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Both those vineyards have long histories. Les Carmes has been making wine for over 200 years.
Aside from those two estates, it’s been a teen since the early 90s for smaller vineyards to step up and make some very good wines from vineyards or estates not previously well known. Though most are in Pomerol and St. Emilion
You review a lot more (with a broader swath) Burgundy vs. Bordeaux. I would actually expect your Bordeaux median to be higher, possibly much higher, since you are effectively limiting yourself to the top 5% of the Bordeaux wines produced.
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I wonder if that’s true. For example, Lafite and Mouton combined are the same size of the entire Volnay premier cru AOC. And in Volnay, there are over 35 domaines (how many can you name?).
I review around three times more cuvées from Burgundy, but I am not sure I taste any more than the top x per cent of Burgundy than Bordeaux, if we are talking about per cent of a region’s total production of bottles.
And, I’m fine with that. The future of wine criticism, in my view, involves, among many other things, amplifying the importance of selection, i.e. what is tasted, to the same level of how what is tasted is rated. Today, there has never been more choice, but it is also easier than ever to track down a given wine; so the necessity of reviewing every wine someone might reasonably expect to find in their local wine store no longer applies.
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I’d like to point something out.
We may not be in Bordeaux, but we have people that are actually in Bordeaux reporting in real time what they are seeing and learning.
I feel like I missed an opportunity to ask more questions. Pretty damn cool.
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Do Chateaux ever pull the current En Primeur offering for the standard tour/tasting, or is that generally just for higher profile visits and critics?