I’m guessing these his notes are the abbreviated version of the dressing down he administered to the wine bottles during the actual tasting. Perhaps his tasting experience was spoiled by the salty tears of shame shed by the wines?
The thing is, that’s a pretty broad swath of Pinots from some of the better California producers. I’ve had the Kutch, Copain, and Rhys wines within the past year, and they are pretty nice wines - and I’ve been known to be a little critical of California Pinot in general. The Rhys, in particular, is one of the better Pinots you could find here, IMO. With rare exceptions, I don’t post negative notes on wines I know I don’t like; I just don’t see the point.
Interesting stuff.
You have an amazing palate.
I know David can be a lightning rod around here, and any time folks say something negative about Board favorites it gets people up in arms, but for whatever it’s worth, David does say right up front that his views were consistent with the group’s consensus.
And I have literally never understood the belief that one should only post about positive experiences here? Just don’t get that 
If this was Wednesday evening then it was a fruit day.
If I had been blind tasting Sauvignon Blancs the scores would be even lower than what David gave to these Pinots. I find it to be an inherently flawed grape.
I like California pinot with stem inclusion. David does not. He won’t change my mind (though I do agree with him on QPR, as California Pinot is starting to outpace very solid Burgundies on price), and I won’t change his.
Your consistent. That’s the market of confidence and a good palate. Thanks for the notes. It is helpful to read. Not every body likes every wine. Even if it is a negative review, if I understand where the writer is coming from, what their tastes are like, the review is helpful and informative.
BTW, anything above an 80 is certainly worth drinking IMO, depending on the circumstances.
To be fair, DavidZ’s strong takes were not the most negative of his tasting group. That distinction would belong Mr. Snuffles, which isn’t all that surprising given that his palate preference for aged sherry is common knowledge. Once a English gentleman, always an English gentleman.
I think it’s a hazing ritual for lawyers attempting to sort out who can make a run for Washington.
So, you don’t like stems?
Were you hit by a switch so many times as a kid that the memory of branches has scarred you and your taste buds?
Because some people thrive on negativity. David’s new theme song:
[video]Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains - YouTube
The line “pour your misery down on me” is particularly fitting in this instance! 
Hit? Maybe his parents confused two punishments and washed his mouth out with switches instead of soap.
EDITED to correct autocorrect’s miscorrections.
Why would you not post negative reviews? The world is not a happy place. We need guideposts directing us to not only the ‘nice’ neighborhoods, but the places to avoid as well. A good review should point out both the good and the bad, or at least reflect that reviewers stance so that you know what they dislike about a wine.
Agreed, he has bent to the will of the masses here, fearing the pressure. An impression of “nasty” or “yuck” and “pour down the drain” gets you 80-81, which should be a relatively drinkable wine. DZ, grow a set and score them how you really wanna score them! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
To be fair, the group liked some of the stemmy wines more than me. The consensus was not on a wine-by-wine basis (the group rankings other than at the bottom and the top were tightly clustered), but generally, I don’t think anyone thought any of the wines justified their cost (the retail price for our first place wine, the Clos Saron, was $75, and the Rhys was $100). It’s rare we have a tasting and none of the wines are wines we agree you’d want to go buy afterwards.
Also, the group has a wide range of palates. I wouldn’t say it even skews particularly AFWE - that Phelps finished 3rd!
The most interesting takeaway for me from this tasting wasn’t that I thought the wines were bad, but that the winemaking was so strongly expressed, way more than terroir - i.e. the Copain tasted more like other Copains than like the Savoy - and that I still think the main reason why expensive Pinot is grown at these sites is not that they are particulaly suited to high end Pinot, but because they’re all within a few hours drive of one of the richest cities in the world. The expression of Pinot here, with the sweet fruit, is just so different than in Burgundy or NZ or Oregon. (John disagrees with me on this last point, and it was discussed while we were tasting.)
Also, when you drink that Phelps you can see vividly what folks were rebelling against when they shifted to this New Wave style, but man, the wines have gotten just as weird and OTT, but now in the other direction. That Copain was a weird, weird wine, as was the Kutch.
See my post above. There is no point in my posting of notes on Sauvignon Blanc. I do not like the grape.
DavidZ does like Pinot Noir, and so in the context of a blind tasting his notes make sense. The fact hat he did not like these wines does speak to his (and apparently to some degree the group) palate preferences, but it does not come from a place where he just hates Pinot.
I think you are missing the subtext here.
Not only is David able to trash wines he does not like, but he can boast about about what a great taster he is, and tell us that he was able to recognize so many of them blind.
Well its much easier when the wines aren’t heat-damaged or counterfeit!
It was a very disappointing tasting and my scores were in the same general range, though with little correlation to David’s ranking order. My comments would be less scathing; more “meh” + “WTF” at the pricing.
FYI, David did correctly each of the eight wines blindly.
OP seems a bit to sour for my taste and generally lacking in finesse and, in general, fun. Too hard. Too serious. Needs to mellow out a bit. May improve with age, but doubtful. Though some my find the negativity aligning with their palate, it is not my thing, whether or not I agree with it. Overall, OP gets 79 pts. Terrible QPR.
Pardon the gigantic run on sentences, but…
Does anyone else find it funny that people would take the time to read David’s post, then write responses chastising David for taking the time to post notes on wines he doesn’t like?
I welcome different perspectives on wines; especially wines that have a devoted loyal following. Groupthink is not what this board needs.