No Sebastian. I didn’t want to read that. I was going by the standards of the posted ratings system. That thread seemed even squirrel-er than this one. — on the silly taster notes comments… okay if the case or multiple bottles of the same wine was corked … no need to post about each single one. Just one post with the total number is okay and maybe an indication of whether you bought at auction or you personally over saw the perfect storage of the wine from release at the winery. (And you had a bottle at release to compare against.) Saying every bottle as you open it as corked is Not very useful. But it must be therapeutic to some.
At the end of the day, every winemaker is trying to make a living and is a business that generally employees people. If I really don’t like a wine and would put it at 79, I just wouldn’t post about it. It’s someone’s livelihood at the end of the day. Maybe if i was a professional wine taster or writer that may be different. (I’m the same way about restaurant ratings and Uber ratings)
The wine looks purple colored. The wine’s legs are medium. The wine’s aroma is floral. The wine’s flavor is medium. The wine’s body is medium. The wine’s acidity is medium. The wine’s finish is medium.
I can’t believe people are peeved about the comments total strangers make and even more, that people put so much store in the opinions of total strangers. I’ve never opened a bottle based on the suggestion of anyone on CT. In the rare instance when I’m looking for information on a wine, I ask people I know, who know more than I.
But if someone said he tasted it with Sally and they loved it, I wouldn’t mind in the least. Nor would it influence me one way or another. If you use CT to pick up the opinions of other people, it would seem that the first order of business might be to find out who you’re paying attention to. If you go shopping for the average opinions of random strangers, you get the Khardashians.
This reminds of the other extreme of the professional poster who talks about everyone they know at the winery and where they had the wine last and what they were doing, and how it was a wine series of tasting 3 different sets of the Chardonnay’s from the wine tasting and how this was the absolutely best wine ever. Cellar tracker may want to impose a tasters note limit below 2000 words. Or have a report that is manually verified of notes that are greater than 500 words made by an amateur. PET PEEVE - 1) long Cellar posts like this one (sorry =) not sorry. 2) when a novice is auditioning for a wine writing gig via CT. 3) WORST - when there are insiders … yes there are manipulating the ratings. Even for the best wines, CT seems to have 1%-5% of the wine data on inventory and even less than .01% of ratings and tasting notes - since not enough people want to share their experience. (Or perhaps the target audience of wines owners that have cellars like mine don’t use CT and just drinks’em.). I guess CT is more of a inventory tool for some and may not be an informational tool that is needed given the number of wine publications that require annual payment for information.
To quote from slightly up thread: “ It’s pet peeves, not the Ten Commandments of wine.”
There may be a couple of exceptions, but I think this thread is mostly just light banter about funny things in CT, not real outrage or harsh criticism.
I frequently put “same as last bottle” - because I can’t be bothered to repeat myself! My notes don’t have any particular value anyway and I’m always amused to read that I’ve contradicted myself.
If I have a peeve, it’s that too many people use pseudonyms - there are lots of tasters I have lots of respect for, whose opinions actually matter to me when I am deciding whether or not to open a bottle, but I have no idea which handle they use.
Honestly? Because I use this all the time. If 5/5 are saying a nebbiolo is closed at the moment from recent notes, I’ll decide to open something else and let it sit awhile longer. If enough people are saying something is getting old and tired, I’m prompted to put that wine in the drinking que. Just seems like it is silly to ignore collected wisdom, kind of like saying “I don’t read the classics (of literature) because so many people have read them already and I don’t want/need to take their opinions of it seriously.”
I don’t get how anyone could be peeved by someone’s honest assessment, that they believe a wine is to old or to young. It is their opinion and isn’t that what they should be giving?
Now back to the fun!
Third Place: Flawed 95 (corked, re-fermenting, VA, loads of brett, premox)
If it’s flawed don’t bother, it’s flawed.
Second Place: Hated wine but saw it got a good score by a Pro so rates it the same score (it is OK to not be confident in your own opinion just don’t use someone else’s)
If I want to know what Larry from “Wines are Us” thinks I will read his review.
Winner!!!: Review like you work for the Winery (we have all read the “are you sitting down” notes)
A more serious pet peeve: when the tn is a description of a flawed wine, but the “flawed” box not checked. There are times – let’s say with white Burgs – where it’s handy to know if one particularly producer and/or vintage has premox problems. Hovering over the Community Score Details can help with that…unless people neglect to check “flawed.” I also feel like there are times where I do check that box, and yet that doesn’t seem to show up under the point distribution, but that might just be my own poor CT skills.
I agree with a lot of these pet peeves. But generally, cellartracker is the best resource I have when determining to allocate my limited budget or open a bottle I have been saving. There really isn’t another source I trust any more that CT notes when trying to determine if I should open a bottle, even though it isn’t perfect!
