Help Me Understand A Wine Critic: Jeb Dunnuck

[Max_S1]

Listened to Jeb on the X Chateau podcast on my flight last night and enjoyed it … enough to subscribe for a year and see how I like it. I liked that he made no apologies for his opinions and defended them vigorously. It was interesting to hear him talk about score inflation, too, and I may not be fully convinced yet, but his point was well taken that it benefits consumers more if critics use the entire scale instead of giving everything an 87-93. I actually drink mainly BDX, Cali and Rhone (though not so much Cali Rhone varietals), so I’m surprised I haven’t given his subscription a whirl yet.

He also briefly discussed the brouhaha of leaving WA should that bit of drama interest you. You have to read between the lines just a bit, but it’s pretty clear as to his interpretation of how things unfolded.

Thanks for posting this, it was pretty great insight into his thought process.

[OwenB]

Listened to Jeb on the X Chateau podcast on my flight last night and enjoyed it … enough to subscribe for a year and see how I like it. I liked that he made no apologies for his opinions and defended them vigorously. It was interesting to hear him talk about score inflation, too, and I may not be fully convinced yet, but his point was well taken that it benefits consumers more if critics use the entire scale instead of giving everything an 87-93. I actually drink mainly BDX, Cali and Rhone (though not so much Cali Rhone varietals), so I’m surprised I haven’t given his subscription a whirl yet.

He also briefly discussed the brouhaha of leaving WA should that bit of drama interest you. You have to read between the lines just a bit, but it’s pretty clear as to his interpretation of how things unfolded.

Thanks for posting this, it was pretty great insight into his thought process.

I enjoyed the podcast and am also a JD subscriber. He doesn’t produce a ton of material given he was until recently a one-man band, but I enjoy his annual reports on the key regions I follow as well as some interesting occasional notes, verticals, etc. Adding Italy is a plus for me too.

In general, I find JD to be a good complement to Vinous. I use his scoring more on a relative basis than an absolute basis, so don’t get so hung up on whether a 100 point wine is actually 100 points or “perfect” or whatever, but I know if he gives something 100 points he thinks it’s really good and likes it better than something that he gave 98 points.