I don’t care either if they are funny but real tasting notes and scores. If they are made up, they can screw up the precision ![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
of the CT average ranking. No big deal if a wine has hundreds of scores and TN’s, but a somewhat bigger deal for a wine with only a few notes, especially now that you see places like winebid quoting CT scores to sell wine. Someone with a vested interest could game the system to some degree.
The Opus note was pretty funny but the other ones didn’t really do as much for me. As to whether they’re real or not, I’m not sure it matters. And the diary style with Lisa and Pam or whoever, those are actually kind of cute, although meaningless.
It’s not a knock to Eric or to CT to find useless, weird, and outlandish notes on CT. It’s a public and open site and that’s what you gotta expect. I respect the program but frankly I’m not going to use any scores/notes to make any decisions. The retailers using the average CT score as a sales tool are probably smart, but it’s like Zagat - a popularity contest when the voters are people you don’t know with tastes you don’t know.
Some posters sit with a bottle and taste it over time. Some bought it because of a score and they report on how that score was right on the money. Some go to a trade tasting, try 50 - 60 wines in two or three hours, and post points on all of them. I go to the same tastings and I marvel at their precision and ability to make such fine distinctions. And finally, some posters actually know wine AND have palates that you can trust. But given the hodge-podge, if some guy makes stuff up, does it really matter? Only if you care about the average score. But if you do, well, that’s not a problem with CT at all.