Slow Wine Guide: GASP....No Scores!!!!

WINE TALK
1

From Chef Eric Guido’s blog:

So what separates Slow Wine from every other wine publication? Firstly, the format is very enjoyable, with a balanced mix of information about the growers, the land and the wine. However, what truly balled the audience over was the announcement that this book would contain no scores. The announcement was met with a nearly audible gasp from the crowd. Of course, it’s human nature to want to quantify everything. In the end, it’s better to look at Slow Wine as a guide to wine, not a guide to buying wine. With Slow Wine, I found myself actually reading for hours straight, something that I don’t do with the other publications.

In the end, it’s an excellent book that really brings to light some of the best grower/winemakers in Italy. It reads smoothly and is full of information about the regions, the land, the history and the people. It’s a welcome addition to any wine lover’s library.


From Slow Food Site:

http://www.slowfood.com/international/slow-stories/90658/slow-wine-in-english/q=A6771F?-session=query_session:42F948F01926339155ir38007825



A wine cannot be judged by scores, symbols or other numerical evaluations, but needs to be assessed in a broader context. From the outset Slow Wine was conceived to give a realistic snapshot of the current Italian wine landscape. To describe this reality, it is essential to get to know it, to leave tasting rooms and travel the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula. More than 2,000 cellars were visited, thousands of vineyards scaled, hundreds of firsthand interviews conducted and countless questions asked. The new concept means that the guide centres round the agronomical efforts of cellars, describing vines planted, vineyards tended and the philosophy underpinning the work of winemakers.

Slow Wine has thus abandoned the method of judging by scores for a new form of evaluation. In the new guide, three sections describe the cellars in their entirety: Life, the stories of the leading players in the world of winemaking; Vines, profiles of vineyards according to their characteristics and the way they are managed; Wines, straightforward descriptions backed up by comprehensive statistics.

As a key to comprehension of each winery listed, three symbols have been assigned: The Snail, the Slow Food symbol, signals a cellar that has distinguished itself through its interpretation of sensorial, territorial, environmental and personal values in harmony with the Slow Food philosophy; The Bottle, allocated to cellars that show a consistent high quality throughout the range of wines presented for our tastings; The Coin, an indicator of good value for money.

Three similar categories are also applied to the wines: Slow Wines, which, besides excellent sensory characteristics, manage to distil the character of their terroir, history and environment in the glass; Great Wines, which possess the absolute sensory quality; Everyday Wines, bottles at the standard price level that present excellent value for money.

“We are convinced that the battle against the homogenization of taste and the standardization of sensory characteristics may only be conducted through knowledge of the land, vineyards and people that combine to form the Italian terroir.” Giancarlo Gariglio and Fabio Giavedoni, head editors.

The english edition of Slow Wine has been published in digital format for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
A free trial version can be donwloaded from the itunes apple online store, as well as the full version for purchase.

2

I’d give it a 66. rolleyes

3

Thanks for posting this Roberto. I’m really interested to hear if there are any opinions on the forum about the topic. It seems like a lot of people are looking for the “new way” with scores and wine writing. I just don’t think that the “average consumer” would be happy without them.

4

Sounds like a well-researched book. “No scores” though, gave me a chuckle. Will the “Snail, Bottle, Coin” scoring system catch on, or is it just another gimmick?

5

And then you also have the “Great Wine”, “Slow Wine” and the “Everyday Wine” categories. Which are basically a sort of scoring system. I doubt many Baroli received the Everyday drinking category.

Another interesting point, if my memory serves correctly, is that the Italian version of the book is three times the size of the American edition. This point was brought up when a member of the press took issue with one producer who was included (yet they considered inferior) to another producer,from the same region, that was not included in the book. Giancarlo Gariglio and Fabio Giavedoni explained that it’s very likely that the one who was left out, was included in the Italian version.

6

Slow Food and Gambero Rosso went their separate ways over their differing set of principals.

Who are these people, and why couldn’t they just get along?

7

Scores are only relevant to me if I know how my palate calibrates with the taster’s palate. Otherwise, tasting notes are more important. An example is Jim Laube. He and I have very different preferences but I think he can clearly describe what he is tasting and that I taste the same things. Because of this I ignore the score he gives and just go by the note.

8

The interesting part is that the tasters are a very large group that have been doing this job for Gambero Rosso for many years. The way it was explained to me, is that Slow Wine took their own share of tasters along with them when they split. I thought it was pretty odd, it truly sounds like the company split down the middle. As for individual names, you don’t get any. The only names you hear are those of the editors, who claim to have put their seal of approval on everything that went into the book.

9

Have you ever read Gambero Rosso? It has very minimal tasting notes and the 1, 2, or 3 glasses awarded to the winery is the only score they give. It’s assumed that if it made it into the guide, that it must be generally good. I’m not sure it would be your thing. However, Slow Wine does give you things like “The Snail”, which depicts a winery that follows their idea of Slow Food values and create a superior product.

It is less about scores and more about the wineries approach to, grape-growing, winemaking and quality.

10

I believe they’re around the corner from each other in Bra in Piedmont, actually.

It was always a strange alliance. In the early years of the English edition (from the late 90s well into the 2000s), the preferences leaned very heavily toward the modernists and the traditionalists got very short shrift. This was more than a little perplexing given that one of Slow Food’s missions is to preserve food traditions.

If you attended one of the Tre Bicchieri tastings in that period you were treated to Sardinian syrahs, cabernets from the south of Italy and a host of over-made wines. It was at one of these events where I was first introduced to the term “spoofified” – by the owner of a major U.S. importing firm. He used it apologetically to describe the oaky bottling that won the top points. He said they made that one cuvee for just to garner the award from the “Fast Wine” crowd and assured me that his producers made some much more interesting wines.

GR/SF worked to correct the modern bias after a certain point, but by then the guide seemed to be fading in influence here. The bicchieri classifications were once cited a lot, but I can’t recall them in ads for some time.

11

I see them quite a bit on Italian websites but it really does fall on deaf ears in most parts of this country. It’s really too bad as well, I feel like we need more italian wine writing in the states. W.S. has totally fallen off the map for me, Tanzer is good but doesn’t excite me much, and Antonio is doing a great job with the time he has, but this leaves a big gap in my life.