Champagne reviews: Vinous versus The Wine advocates

Otto you need to get a life, instead of stalking people like me on Winebeserkers.

JBP X @MattRifeComedy. Today at 5pm EST. (youtube.com)

I already have a life, one that I enjoy very much - but thank you for worrying about me.

However, you seem to think you’re much more important than you really are. I’m not stalking anybody. The forum software here at WB just highlights threads on which I’ve written before. When you write something here, WB highlights the thread for me. If you write something I feel I should react to, I simply write a reply. Nobody’s stalking anybody, I was just sitting at my computer, sipping coffee and browsing WB. You can take your tin foil hat off now.

And I hope you can see the irony that you yourself are telling somebody else to stop stalking you on the internet. If you want the world to change, maybe start with yourself?

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You make an epic case for ā€œdo not feed the trolls.ā€ Point well taken although I am not on Vinous. I think I’ve made my point courteously to Donald. For my part I am not going to respond to his rants from now on.

ā€œIn a wine world sadly dominated by anglocentric influences, the question of whether a critic can free themselves from their regional bias is pertinent.ā€

ā€œIn conclusion, William Kelley’s champagne reviews may resonate with those whose palates align with his Burgundian preferences, basically he is preaching to the converted, conservative wine drinker, one will not discover anything new in his reviews.ā€

ā€œThen there is the thing about my anglophobia. Since the catastrophe of 2016 and then the bigger catastrophe of the 31st of January 2020, I just cannot be objective about anything English, especially individuals deriving from those privileged backgrounds and ruining everything. It is with an intense feeling of schadenfreude that I watch that privileged class annihilate themselves and, sadly, bring down ā€˜plebs’ like myself in their self-destruction.ā€

Perhaps this thread should be moved to the POLITICS forum.
The folks there will set you on the right path. :smirk:

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Poor Donald! He sits at his keyboard ranting away, mostly about William, and we read and we tell him that he either doesn’t know what he is talking about, or has an agenda. So the choice before us is whether he is ignorant, or a self serving troll. Personally, I doubt ignorance, so I am left with just good old fashioned douchebaggery.

I think we should cut off the oxygen and stop responding. He obviously does not care for anyone’s opinion but his own, so I am suggesting that we leave him ranting at his keyboard in a complete vacuum. So as of now, until such time the conversation returns to real content, I will not respond to his bile driven nonsense.

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How’s it in the allmighty internet

-there is always the ignore button

-when you argue with an idiot, make sure he’s not doing the same

-wheelchair makes best ā€œplace the preferred title hereā€

-foilhat helps you to recognize the next conspiracy theory expert, or the mirror

-wine is a subjective matter, so why bother about anyone else

-when you drink great wines with friends you are not left enough time to argue with idiots on the internet forum

-where to find the next best winethinggy to rave about

I’ll let my beef rest, empty my bottle and make sure the wife is happy

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This is a problem for me and exposes an inherent motivation to demonize William as opposed to any healthy debate about style and preference. When you expose that you are attacking him personally, all the defense is fully justified

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Mr Deppen, I’m glad you’re so proud of yourself for a turn of phrase gleaned from a children’s book, but I’m not in the wine business in any way, let alone an importer.

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But you are a wizard, right?

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Sorry Donald. I think in one way you loose this argument. I would imagine you belong to both Vinous and the Wine Advocate. They are in some ways your masters. You are paying them to give you pain.

I do love that you are always willing to share information on a vast number of wines. Thank you for that.

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I’m handy with a wand. :sunglasses:

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I am going to get more pop corn…

I know I’m new here, but is this really acceptable for this forum?

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He’s a weird cat

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I think all of us on the board post opinions that contain bias and do not always fly true to the mark.

Part of the board is about either choosing to disregard posts we disagree with, or to refine or dispute the merit of the post by defining the bias for others to see.

Suggesting that posters should be quiet and not post unless they have 100% comprehension of the subject would leave not a single person on this board in a position to post anything, including you.

Does the OP have a bias with William Kelley’s champagne reviews? It would certainly seem so.

Is everything he says completely baseless nonsense? That, given the real world challenges of critical review and the OP’s reasonably knowledgeable posts on champagne, seems unlikely too.

Does that mean I should disregard WK’s reviews on Champagne? Not at all.

I like William Kelley and enjoy his posting here quite a bit. The board is MUCH better off for having him posting here. But I feel that having a contrary view doesn’t affect that in the slightest, rather it points out that he’s human like the rest of us, and whether I agree or disagree with the OP I can consider whether or not parts of what he’s posting are things to think about. And make my own decision like an adult.

As much as I disagree with much of Donal’s haranguing of WK here on the board, I disagree considerably more with shushing dissenting voices and building sacred cows.

I have yet to see a critic (or winemaker or person) that is universally free from bias, and it should certainly stand out to any thinking person that William Kelley’s popularity on this board is likely in part due to his biases simply mirroring our own more than most other critics. Which for me is great, and why I enjoy his thoughts so much (being US-anglo and all).

That said, the MW certification is archaic. With the expansion of wine production globally, it’s physically impossible for a single person to have mastery of all regions. No more than a single person could be a ā€œmasterā€ of medicine or law. There’s simply too many wines and too many places, and more diversification by a factor of 1000 than when the program was begun. At some point, regional review makes more sense (Jancis Robinson has Samantha Cole-Johnson writing on the Willamette Valley for her) but regions that have reviewers of note living in them (and in WKs situation making wine in them) do enjoy a significant bias/luxury. That’s life…it’s not fair. But as long as people/critics do their best to determine the quality of the wines the review, it will work. But knowing that these issues exist should be important for any thinking person.

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It does smack a bit of politics…but since we’re a USA centric board, it’s kind of like a German critics review of Champagne.

There is an old Chinese saying in China where I was grown up as young boy.

I remembered my aunt ( her name was come-good-fortune ) she told me that a big should not get fat; and that I should not get famous but it is OK to get fat.

Guess W.K should not get famous…or too ,famous

You seem to have misunderstood my point.

What I was saying, was if Donald is attempting to ā€œoffer us differing opinionsā€ but is in danger of getting sued for libel, maybe he should at that point shut up and reconsider his words before he gets into worse trouble.

I’m not saying anyone should have 100% comprehension on any subject to discuss here. I’m saying Donald should try to understand what he is doing wrong. We are constantly throwing differing opinions at each other, but Donald is operating on a completely different level and I don’t think that is neither wise nor particularly healthy for this board. It is perfectly ok to be critical of WK as it is of any other critic. However, what Donald is doing here is not just being critical and offering differing point of views (although this thread might’ve been his best attempt at it yet); he is just being unreasonable to the point of harassment.

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Am I the only one who thinks that ā€œOtto Forsbergā€ is Willaim Kelly’s burner account?

Nope, I’m with you.

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