Exactly. Say what you thought of the wine, what it was like, what you liked and didn’t like, and be completely honest. Very few will fault you for that.
But there is no need to take the next steps and to insult the winemakers, to make caricatures of what kinds of awful people must like that wine, and things like that. That adds heat but no light.
Just post it - us winemakers will just ‘blame it’ on bottle variation anyways . . . 
To be clear, the text message was a flip remark, intended to get across the idea that I did not like the wine, said to a friend, in a private conversation. I would not write that on a wine board or in a tasting note.
Never wrong to post true and honest impressions of a wine no matter a member of community or not as long as you have no agenda attached. As a matter of fact I have many winemaker friends that I know appreciate honesty and integrity in many notes written on their wines. The amount of wine people with a thin skin here are very small, but there’s a few. Agenda driven notes are never a good contribution to the society. I have sat across the dinner table and told a well loved winemaker/board favorite that a particular wine of his just does not hit the mark and I believe I called it a ‘Bit pedestrian’. He agreed with my honest assessment and we smiled to one another and moved on like gentlemen.
Cheers!
I mean I post negative notes on Corey all the time but I’d hardly call him a “board favorite”.
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good one!
As long as you don’t bash the product with the same zeal that was used in the Caymus 40th thread, post away. There have been a few board darlings that didn’t tickle my fancy either.
I posted a negative note on a Carlisle last year. Mike Officer responded and suggested it was probably just not my style. He maybe right. I bought another one and we will see. It was not a poorly made wine, and others like it. We’re grown up and the truth is what it is. Just don’t be mean about it. The fact that I own a ton of Carlisle and Mike knows it might have blunted any bad feelings.
No big deal. I have had clunkers from world darlings let alone board darlings.
Back in 1985 I had a bad 1980 Mouton and contacted the winery about it. I am still waiting to hear back…
Next time let them know you are Jeff’s best friend…
Why belong to a wine community and not post your true feelings?
As long as your honest and don’t “attack” you will be fine.
Many here like me will appreciate the honest review!
I say post it, free of vitriol. (No need to invoke shame, employ psychoanalysis of the winemaker or launch ad hominem attacks on the wine’s fans.)
Also, don’t say “This wine is a crime against humanity” and then give it 87 points.
Wineries and wine makers use online wine enthusiast sites to sell wine. They aren’t just here for shits and giggles. If they are selling a subpar product, what better place to discus an honest assessment than on the same fora that are used to sell that product?
Did anyone bother taking up the blind tasting challenge with that wine? The main criticism of that wine was that it tastes like other decent quality mass produced Cabs that sell for a fifth the price. That certainly is constructive criticism, isn’t it? Set the ego and label bias aside for a few minutes to find out if you could be saving a lot of money for the same level of enjoyment?
Can I post the text!?
I don’t even know the wine.
I’ll leave off the part of the picture showing you in your white briefs.
I will go further and credit you for that - ESPECIALLY for “board favorites.” We don’t all like the same things, and hearing why you didn’t like a wine that others do is far more valuable in helping me assess whether I might like it than yet another “me too” or “this is the sort of thing you’ll like if you like that sort of thing.”
Dirty & Rowdy is not to my liking but obviously Hardy knows how to make wine because he sells a lot of it. I think I mentioned it in another thread either here or on CT. My take on the wines could be ‘he should be ashamed’ but realistically it is that my palate is not in tune with the wines. And I dumped two bottles down the drain.
When I read the title, I thought he was talking about you.
I wouldn’t worry about it at all. If you feel like vitriol, post that too.
Honestly, I don’t see why people are supposed to couch their feelings in soft, fuzzy, sugary language, or why there should be any “guidelines” at all in how to express displeasure.
If you think a wine is crap, state as much. You don’t have to say you found it “challenging” or “difficult” or “not your style” or any of those other things. If you drink a wine and think it’s sour, thin, weedy shit, why not say so? And if you think it’s generic, sweet, gooey and nauseating, why not say so?
So what if it’s a “board favorite”? What is that supposed to mean anyway? That a dozen people post enthusiastically and frequently about it, perhaps hoping to get a few samples or be treated nicely if they visit or just to be considered in the mix? Or because they truly like it?
All of those are likely and all will mean that they disagree with your view and what is the problem with that?
This is all just imaginary anyway - it’s one opinion vs another. There’s no blood on the ground. If you take a machete and physically attack the wine maker, that’s obviously a different order of business, but stating that you can’t stand a wine, no matter how vociferously, is not going to stop the earth from spinning.
And if you’re not attacking the wine maker as a person, you’re just attacking the product, what’s the harm?
Moreover, does anyone think that other people won’t write and say worse things about a wine? I watched a guy take a glass of a fine Mascarello from Maria Teresa, sip it, and exclaim that it’s shit. She told me it wasn’t the first time she’d heard that - some people just don’t like her wine.
And as others have mentioned, expect to get hit back. Don’t be like some thin-skinned critics who dish it out all over but are offended when it comes their way.
BTW - everyone is wondering exactly what that wine was!