Who is your favorite taster amongst these Top 20 CT tasters

[Chris_Tuttle]

Rieslingfan and Levenberg are two gents for whom I keep an eye out!

[M_Dildine]

Vote for Frankie!

[Marc_Frontario]

Salil is top 20?..dude!!

[Marc_Frontario]

Tooch! Man some overachiever’s out there

[Marc_Frontario]

KL…Tooch…Salil

I am partial since I love cab franc and I did witness Tooch guess a wine blind right down to the grape, year and producer.

[Arild_Haaland]

My favourite taster has for a long time been bevetroppo. He writes brilliant, inspiring tasting notes and is very vocal on his own impressions of the wines. Should have a lot more fans than he has.

I also very much enjoy Keith Levenberg, who has posted my favourite tasting note of all time:

Keith Levenberg wrote:

72 Points

10. januar 2010 - This is a pretty textbook example of the current hipster style of Großes Gewächs that I don’t much fancy, tasting like it was created in response to a dare – “I’ll bet I can make my wine more painfully dry and acidic than yours!” It’s kind of like a hypothetical blend of wine and pain. It tastes like a mouthful of razor blades dipped in acid with maybe the faintest inflection of riesling fruit. But the funny thing about this style is that it functions in wine tastings in pretty much the exact same way as the polar opposite style. In a lineup of fat, syrupy cult cabernets, the fattest, most syrupy one is always the “winner.” (“Blew everything else off the table!”) A lot of these GG’s do the same thing, but backwards – it’s the most acidic and austere one that blows away the competition, since once someone’s cut up your tongue with a razor blade the rest is kind of anti-climatic. Matt Kramer coined the phrase “low-cut-dress syndrome” to describe the tendency of those fat, syrupy wines to dominate blind tastings, like the way the first woman you notice in the room is the one with fake boobs and a plunging neckline. I can only imagine the scene if you put a wine like this in a middle of a lineup of low-cut-dress wines. All those blondes with fake boobs in stripper dresses sizing each other up and then in walks this Großes Gewächs out of a German schizer porn movie with a leather face mask, spiked heels, and shaved eyebrows cracking a cat-of-nine-tails and she says in a husky machine-like voice, “Guten tag. Who wants to be my slave? I don’t use safe words.” Anyway, it was an experience of sorts, but I was pretty happy to escape this wine after dinner.

[Mike_DiSalvo]

I enjoy Loren’s notes immensely. C"mon Man, who else drinks wines like Masseto while watching the Browns get beat weekly? Seriously, he drinks some amazing wines from all over the world! Miss not seeing Jim Cowan’s notes on a regular basis, while I didn’t necessarily like the same style he does know how to construct a great sentence. Ditto with Mitch Tallan. Boy, there are a lot of attorney’s on these boards!

[Michael_S_Monie]

Klapp: You get an annual truffle report as lagniappe!

[Dennis_Kanagie]

@Michael S. Monie

Michael S. Monie

Count? Is that you?

[Marc_Frontario]

@Arild Haaland

My favourite taster has for a long time been bevetroppo. He writes brilliant, inspiring tasting notes and is very vocal on his own impressions of the wines. Should have a lot more fans than he has.

I also very much enjoy Keith Levenberg, who has posted my favourite tasting note of all time:

Keith Levenberg wrote:

72 Points

10. januar 2010 - This is a pretty textbook example of the current hipster style of Großes Gewächs that I don’t much fancy, tasting like it was created in response to a dare – “I’ll bet I can make my wine more painfully dry and acidic than yours!” It’s kind of like a hypothetical blend of wine and pain. It tastes like a mouthful of razor blades dipped in acid with maybe the faintest inflection of riesling fruit. But the funny thing about this style is that it functions in wine tastings in pretty much the exact same way as the polar opposite style. In a lineup of fat, syrupy cult cabernets, the fattest, most syrupy one is always the “winner.” (“Blew everything else off the table!”) A lot of these GG’s do the same thing, but backwards – it’s the most acidic and austere one that blows away the competition, since once someone’s cut up your tongue with a razor blade the rest is kind of anti-climatic. Matt Kramer coined the phrase “low-cut-dress syndrome” to describe the tendency of those fat, syrupy wines to dominate blind tastings, like the way the first woman you notice in the room is the one with fake boobs and a plunging neckline. I can only imagine the scene if you put a wine like this in a middle of a lineup of low-cut-dress wines. All those blondes with fake boobs in stripper dresses sizing each other up and then in walks this Großes Gewächs out of a German schizer porn movie with a leather face mask, spiked heels, and shaved eyebrows cracking a cat-of-nine-tails and she says in a husky machine-like voice, “Guten tag. Who wants to be my slave? I don’t use safe words.” Anyway, it was an experience of sorts, but I was pretty happy to escape this wine after dinner.

Never in my life have I been interested in tasting a 72 point wine before…that apparently has changed

[Loren_Sonkin]

I voted for me (mispelled name and all). Somehow, I find my palate aligns with my palate quite well. At least most of the time.

[Robert.A.Jr]

@Marc Frontario

@Arild Haaland

My favourite taster has for a long time been bevetroppo. He writes brilliant, inspiring tasting notes and is very vocal on his own impressions of the wines. Should have a lot more fans than he has.

I also very much enjoy Keith Levenberg, who has posted my favourite tasting note of all time:

Keith Levenberg wrote:

72 Points

10. januar 2010 - This is a pretty textbook example of the current hipster style of Großes Gewächs that I don’t much fancy, tasting like it was created in response to a dare – “I’ll bet I can make my wine more painfully dry and acidic than yours!” It’s kind of like a hypothetical blend of wine and pain. It tastes like a mouthful of razor blades dipped in acid with maybe the faintest inflection of riesling fruit. But the funny thing about this style is that it functions in wine tastings in pretty much the exact same way as the polar opposite style. In a lineup of fat, syrupy cult cabernets, the fattest, most syrupy one is always the “winner.” (“Blew everything else off the table!”) A lot of these GG’s do the same thing, but backwards – it’s the most acidic and austere one that blows away the competition, since once someone’s cut up your tongue with a razor blade the rest is kind of anti-climatic. Matt Kramer coined the phrase “low-cut-dress syndrome” to describe the tendency of those fat, syrupy wines to dominate blind tastings, like the way the first woman you notice in the room is the one with fake boobs and a plunging neckline. I can only imagine the scene if you put a wine like this in a middle of a lineup of low-cut-dress wines. All those blondes with fake boobs in stripper dresses sizing each other up and then in walks this Großes Gewächs out of a German schizer porn movie with a leather face mask, spiked heels, and shaved eyebrows cracking a cat-of-nine-tails and she says in a husky machine-like voice, “Guten tag. Who wants to be my slave? I don’t use safe words.” Anyway, it was an experience of sorts, but I was pretty happy to escape this wine after dinner.

Never in my life have I been interested in tasting a 72 point wine before…that apparently has changed

Not sure how I missed that note, that’s great! Like something Corey would write, but with less eloquence and cheaper wine.

[maureen_nelson]

Here are other reviews of that 72 point wine:


(Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Trocken GG) AP: 08 09. This offers good flavors of fresh pears, stone and minerals. The wine comes over as elegant, delineated and playful with more racy flavors of fresh fruit and flowers. The finish is nicely integrated and rather long. This is a nicely elegant and refined example of a GG playing on sappy balance rather than alcoholic power. Now-2015 90 points

(Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Grosses Gewächs - Weingut F. Haag) The 2008 Grosses Gewächs bottling from the Juffer-Sonnenuhr vineyard is outstanding from Weingut Fritz Haag, as the wine soars from the glass in an absolutely brilliant mélange of lime, green apple, pink grapefruit, incipient notes of petrol, great minerality, citrus peel and a slight herbal complication that just heightens the aromatic complexity. On the palate the wine is medium-full, deep and very intensely flavored, with a great core, excellent focus and cut and a very long, snappy and refined finish. Great juice and one of the best Grosses Gewächs bottlings I have tasted from the Middle Mosel. (Drink between 2014-2030) 94 points

[Brad_S_w_a_l_l_o_w]

Is Jermey Holmes related in any way to Jeremy? I really enjoy the style of Jeremy’s notes. There is humor and obvious appreciation in them, and they describe the subject wines well without resorting to lists of flavor descriptors. Reading them leaves me with an impression of what it must have been like to have the tasting experience (a good thing, since I don’t drink nearly as well as Mr. Holmes and appreciate the vicarious experiences).

I also enjoy FMIII’s notes. They are analytical and typically describe the evolution of the subject wines over the passage of some time. FMIII also drinks a great many of the wines I regularly drink, so his notes have practical value to me.

[D.Callahan]

@maureen nelson

Here are other reviews of that 72 point wine:


(Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Trocken GG) AP: 08 09. This offers good flavors of fresh pears, stone and minerals. The wine comes over as elegant, delineated and playful with more racy flavors of fresh fruit and flowers. The finish is nicely integrated and rather long. This is a nicely elegant and refined example of a GG playing on sappy balance rather than alcoholic power. Now-2015 90 points

(Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Grosses Gewächs - Weingut F. Haag) The 2008 Grosses Gewächs bottling from the Juffer-Sonnenuhr vineyard is outstanding from Weingut Fritz Haag, as the wine soars from the glass in an absolutely brilliant mélange of lime, green apple, pink grapefruit, incipient notes of petrol, great minerality, citrus peel and a slight herbal complication that just heightens the aromatic complexity. On the palate the wine is medium-full, deep and very intensely flavored, with a great core, excellent focus and cut and a very long, snappy and refined finish. Great juice and one of the best Grosses Gewächs bottlings I have tasted from the Middle Mosel. (Drink between 2014-2030) 94 points

Wow! A perfect delineation of differing tastes. Some hints as to the wines characteristics do appear in both of these reviews. The first of these reviews mentions “racy.” The second review gives a few more hints with the terms “excellent focus and cut” and the fruits chosen to describe the wine, “lime, green apple, pink grapefruit.” If you are not a fan of enamel stripping acidity you need to be able to differentiate between wines using these clues. I find my palate is more in line with Kieth’s and his note is easy to grok*.

(*get, completely understand all the nuances of)

[bretrooks]

Wine_strategies for me because of palate alignment, some overlap in wines we drink (his lower-end ~ my mid-range), and it doesn’t hurt that I’ve met him and found him to be a delightful guy to have dinner and converse with.

I appreciate notes by Keith, zweder, Paul S, FMIII, drwine2001, and others as well, but those notes are generally not frequent enough and/or on a wide enough variety of bottles I’ve also had in order to get a real calibration.

[Dennis_Kanagie]

I’ve had notes from Burgundy Al and Frank Murray III resonate with me, but I’m far too new at CT to make a definitive call. Maybe I should take a deeper look at whose notes I agree with after writing one of my own.

[Keith_Levenberg]

@maureen nelson

(Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Grosses Gewächs - Weingut F. Haag) The 2008 Grosses Gewächs bottling from the Juffer-Sonnenuhr vineyard is outstanding from Weingut Fritz Haag, as the wine soars from the glass in an absolutely brilliant mélange of lime, green apple, pink grapefruit, incipient notes of petrol, great minerality, citrus peel and a slight herbal complication that just heightens the aromatic complexity. On the palate the wine is medium-full, deep and very intensely flavored, with a great core, excellent focus and cut and a very long, snappy and refined finish. Great juice and one of the best Grosses Gewächs bottlings I have tasted from the Middle Mosel. (Drink between 2014-2030) 94 points

I had to suffer through a 750ml bottle. Maybe John got lucky and had it in a tasting where some Spatlese was around to soothe the pain.

I am surprised more people haven’t recognized Paul S in this poll. IMO, he has some of the most thorough, descriptive, well-written notes on the site (or anywhere) and when I see he has a note posted on something I’m interested in, it’s the only one I need to read.

[David_Bu3ker]

I don’t have Paul S as a favorite taster, and probably should. More often than not, my favorite tasters take up page 1 (most often you, Frank, Salil and Tooch), and I never click past to see more.

[KatrinaBI]

Wine Strategies for me. Zero pretension or ego in his notes and he manages to steer a mid course between excessive terseness (ala Richard Jennings) and excessive wordiness (too numerous to mention, and generally goes hand in hand with the egotism.)