When people say “taste before you buy,” I am curious how to do that with respect to allocated mailing list wines, particularly when you don’t live in or intend to visit Napa/Sonoma in the near term.
Land your helicopter on the property and demand a sample bottle. 
Or just listen to the rumor mill and void the vintage altigether.
As I am sure many here do, I trust the small producers that I have been loyal to for more than a decade to not bottle swill. My assumption is that none of us buy from a producer who will risk its entire reputation by bottling smoke tainted grapes or even grapes that are potentially tainted. I have bought from more than two dozen lists for years without tasting first, and rarely have been dissatisfied. As for “points,” if you have a similar palate to the critic (which would be the case if you consistently agree with the descriptors in their reviews) then I feel you would probably not be disappointed in the wine. Not a guarantee, but if Tanzer, Gallioni or Laube like it, I probably will. Yes my friends, I like fruit in my wine!
Good answer, Bruce!!!
Can’t tell if this is a forum of adults having an educated conversation, or a high school debate championship with the moods/sensitivity coming through some of the replies
Lets hug it out and drink/buy what we want 
I don’t buy a lot of wine these days, and I would only buy 2017 from a mailing list if I was concerned I’d be dropped to the end of line. Or dropped from moving up in terms of qty allocated in future or getting the premium wines/vineyards I’m not getting from that winery. Too much other good wine out there . Not worth it to me .
The defensiveness on this thread is really something. I guess everyone is just too used to every vintage in California being great. I have no idea whether there are problems with 2017 or not, but I see no reason to get huffy about legitimate questions being asked about the vintage.
Depends on what you consider legitimate. Like I said previously, if you have to worry about whether your wine is damged by the vintage and the winery is releasing it anyhow then perhaps you’re buying from the wrong people. Just sayin.
Which ignores the possibility that honest people and good winemakers make mistakes or misjudge the effect of the fires. People have a right to ask questions before spending their money.
I guess this comes down to the following to me:
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It is becoming much more difficult to ‘try before you buy’ and therefore either barrel sample notes or ‘critic’ scores may be that much important (and that can be ‘peer’ notes as well
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If you have to ‘listen’ to someone else, who are you going to ‘trust’? Some critics have raised concerns about this vintage, especially as it relates to Napa and Sonoma, and others have said it’s much ado about nothing. Again, who do you ‘trust’?
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Smaller wineries have so much at stake that it’s difficult to imagine that they would release any kind of ‘tainted’ product. And I have yet to read any notes on released wines that are showing smoke taint - at least not as of yet.
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With regards to ripeness and heat spikes, wineries have become much more adept at working with these challenges - and as I said above, the technolgies that exist to help ‘deal’ with this I’m certain were utilized by many wineries in 2017, both large and small.
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If you are really concerned, I would think it’s pretty easy to send an email directly to the winery and ask some pointed questions. Many of the wineries discussed regularly on this board on smallish, and they should be able to take the time to alleviate concerns. The ‘they’re so busy they can’t’ attitude has to go away from a customer service standpoint.
Good luck continuing the thread - and if you do reach out to specific wineries, let us know what they say.
Cheers!
2017’s (mostly cabernet) were front and center at Premiere Napa Valley last week. No smoke taint in the 30+ lots (out of 135 cabernet lots) I tasted from various AVA’s. As far as quality - 17’s remind me a lot of 07”s. They are not the powerhouses of 13-14-16 but they are elegant and balanced wines.
It is hard to not be emotional about somewhat trolly remark without supporting data but i guess this is Wine Berserkers. LOL, defensive, imagine the shitstorm if he said Burgundy or Oregon, hmmm weren’t there fires and heat spikes in Oregon*, yet great to exceptional wines were made?
I can give some data points for us. All wines save one were in and we had no problems with the winery as we had power and the police let me get to my ferments (managing the fermentations may be the real issue with the vintage for some wineries that couldn’t get in to do the necessary work). The one wine that was still out was our Flora. Tested at ETS. 0 4-methyl, 0 4-methyl guaiacol, 0 sensory. Considered one of the top wines by a taster at Falltacular. The wines are excellent, the heat spikes did not have an effect on the grapes. Some of that is due to us having heritage clones of pinot noir that are known to tolerate heat spikes better.
Think of this:
We are about a half mile from Larkfield-Wikiup that burned. We are about a mile from Coffee Park and Fountaingrove that both burned down. I think the fire taint is a concern but it is very limited as the chemistry and sensory panels are revealing. The timing of the fire was important. Many varieties still out there were at the end of the metabolic process.
*In 2017 Oregon experienced a total of 1,069 reported wildfires: with 779 human ignited and 290 ignited by lightning strikes. These fires burned a total area of 451,863 acres. … Fires in the Columbia River Gorge shut down Interstate 84, the state’s major east–west freeway, for several days in early September.
*Growers throughout the state (OR) had concerns for possible smoke taint (see regional overviews below). An additional issue that rose from the smoke could have been both a benefit and problem. With smoke in the air many growers noted that ripening temperatures were lower than areas where there was no smoke, ultimately slowing the maturation of the fruit. Growers in other areas noted that high level smoke likely lowered temperatures during the heat stress events, reducing the impacts there.
*Burgundy 2017 – when smoke saved grapes | JancisRobinson.com
(edited for the last link)
Thanks for actual insights.
Don’t fool yourself. Winemakers know exactly what they are putting in the bottle.
You are right, Sherri, everyone can’t possibly taste before they buy. Here is where you need to trust the winery you are dealing with.
+1. I’m always amused when people say “taste before you buy.” Hence, I rely on reviewers I trust, esp the folks at Vinous. With regards to Sonoma, AG does a very good job of getting his reviews out before the releases. For example, in the past month or so, he posted individual reviews on Rivers-Marie, Occidental, Arnot-Roberts, (and many more) a day or two before the emails went out.
One would think…we were up in Napa a couple of weeks ago and had some extra time on the way back to meeting the parents for dinner, so made a quick stop at Grgich. They started a winery back in Croatia a while ago and sell a Plavac Mali red and Posip white direct through the tasting room. Fortunately the Plavac Mali was served at the back end of the tasting.
Picked up the glass and this immediately smelled like sticking your nose in an ashtray and tasted the same. Straight to the dump bucket. The employee went on to tell us how the Peljesac peninsula was hit by forest fires which gave the wine a smoky characteristic and how customers loved the smoky flavor of the wine…I kid you not.
Brian, I assume you are aware of the heat spikes and fires, given where you live . Can you guarantee 100% that all wine from Napa/Sonoma released will be smoke free? And know that after years in the bottle there will be no residual effects from smoke ? And willl be same quality as the “good” years in this last decade?
I don’t understand why you think there needs to be blind loyalty and how it is “wrong” to question the concern for the wine for 2017. Unless you are buying the wine for them .