Mike the biggest thing you need to do with these tastings is make sure the guests are applying the tasting process correctly. I have done a ton of these type of events for in-home tastings and big corporate tastings and the guests usually like the wines we like better when properly tasting the wines. So many people think German Rieslings are sweet but when they taste a good Mosel they get the wonderful sour element that they never got by not applying the tasting process.
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QPR in the eyes of the beholder. I’ve had 3 bottles of a 6 pack of the 2005 and will donate the rest to friends that can find enjoyment in it.
RT
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Howard I think you meant Gallo collection.
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Your palate and mine apparently differ a great deal, which is fine.
I of course like wines outside their portfolio such as Ridge, Liquid Farm, Arcadian, Mount Eden, Pax, Anderson’s Conn Valley, just curious what your favorite Cali producers are?
Most of the California wines I drink are from Ridge, Chateau Montelena and Stony Hill and I very much like the wines from these producers, but American wines make up about 6% of my wine cellar.
Could be like putting Audrey Hepburn next to Kim Kardashian, and asking them to pick one. Over and over.
For me, what defines the soulessness of the frankenwines isn’t that they’re objectively bad, it’s how they all kind of taste and feel the same, regardless of producer, region, or even varietal. The 15.5% lush jammy pinot from Santa Barbara isn’t all that different from the 15.5% lush jammy Syrah from Paso which isn’t that different from the 15.5% lush jammy Cabernet from Napa, etc.
Pairs of artisan wine with corporate product will, if anything, mask that.
Instead, I’d suggest dividing your tasting into two groupings.
First, blind taste the the interesting wines. Let the group try to guess varietal, region, producer, etc. Drinking them against each other allows your tasters to connect with their nuances, winemaking philosophies, and expressions of terroir. It will also showcase the uniqueness of each wine in these flights. After you reveal, let them retaste if possible & give them data sheets on each wine: vineyards, winemaker, etc. etc. My bet is the experience of drinking all of those wines together will provoke all kinds interesting discussion, because each wine will be so distinct.
THEN
Line up group two (double blind if possible) - the soulless corporate wines. Take your group through the same process - trying to guess varietal, region, producer, etc. My bet is, on the first flight, they’ll be wowed by all that jazz and sizzle those wines bring. But as they move forward, it will become become a wee bit of a slog - as it starts to feel like tasting the same wine over and over.
You won’t have to “prove” a thing. Some people will prefer the wines of Group 1, some of Group 2 - but everyone should come away with a basic understanding, and appreciation, of the difference between an artisanal wine and a corporate product.
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If the members of this wine group are mostly people who just like wine but are not “into wine” like we are, my guess is that the “soulless wines” win. I belong to two wine groups. One is a group of pretty sophisticated wine lovers (some members of this board) who probably would dismiss the “soulless wines”.
But, the other group is a wine group at my Country Club where most of the people just like drinking wine and do not really know that much about wine. In general, these people don’t like complicated wines. They like wines with richness - what they have called “a mouthful of wine.” About a year ago, I tried to teach one of the couples with a relatively MORE sophisticated palate (once at a table during one of my tastings they were the only ones at their table who thought there was something wrong with a wine that was clearly corked (the husband brought the wine over to me at a different table to see if he was right that there was something wrong with the wine)). We tried to teach them a bit about Burgundy by giving them two wines from Dublere - a 2016 Chorey-les-Beaune La Maladerotte and a 2008 Volnay 1er Cru Pitures. The Chorey-les-Beaune was a very pretty wine with very nice upfront fruit and very smooth flavors, but the Volnay was a much more complex wine with a lot more to it including mature flavors and a much longer finish. They both preferred the upfront fruit and smoothness of the Chorey-les-Beaune. I see this over and over again in this wine group. The preference for the pleasant but relatively simple (esp. if it is a mouthful of wine) over the more complex.
Again, people should drink what they like and not what I like, but IMHO the reason why “soulless wines with poor QPR” get to have poor QPR is that many, many people prefer these wines.
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My guess is that most would pick Kim Kardashian.
I’ve tried this and seen it. Not 50/50, but more like 90/10 for what most of us would consider “manufactured”, and the 10% knew more about wine than the rest. I remember when I was younger and had an agenda. I poured NV Veuve Clicquot alongside NV Aubry. I was doing a presentation, and I made a strong case for the Auby being more distinctive and interesting. Almost everyone in the room preferred the Clicquot. There could have been some bias as it was not blind, but I’d bet the same thing would happen blind, maybe even going to 100% for the Clicquot in a group that’s not very knowledgeable about wine.
The “manufactured” wines are made to suit the tastes of a large percentage of consumers who drink wine but don’t study it, don’t think about it too much. The companies doing that are generally excellent at it. As Howard correctly pointed out, what most of us here consider “soulless with poor QPR”, a strong majority of wine drinkers in the US will love. So, comparing styles is great, and discussing wines is great, but I wouldn’t expect a group of people who aren’t really dedicated to wine to “see the light” with the types of comparisons being discussed.
More often than not when I was pouring at a retail tasting, my least favorite wine on the table would be the top seller.
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Ditto… JFW actually has a really solid portfolio. Many people just assume KJ or La Crema. Actually I encourage everyone to seek out some high end La Crema wines. I had a Yamhil-Carlton Chardonnay recently that was outstanding.
Even the base bottling La Crema wines are drinkable. I would argue that no other large operation has done a better job of acquiring wineries than KJ over the last 10 years.
IMO, it’s way too ambitious and unfocused to do a tasting with pairs of 9 different varieties. It could be more interesting and instructive to provide more examples from fewer varieties. For example offer wines at various price points from both artisan and non-artisan producers. Pinot noir in California offers many popular labels with huge production levels, usually without AVA designation, etc. but with a strong style. Meiomi, Belle Glos, La Crema, Mark West, et al. would be great to put up against comparably priced small-production wines.
As others have referenced, I wouldn’t use loaded terms like “soulless”. And I’m not sure people would agree with “poor QPR” if they prefer a particular wine! Look forward to seeing the undoubtedly surprising tasting results!
Good luck!
Peter
The “manufactured” wines are made to suit the tastes of a large percentage of consumers who drink wine but don’t study it, don’t think about it too much.
Well put. A large percentage of Americans including myself growing up drink a lot of sweet flavored beverages hence the mass produced style that appeal to many. When I first started drinking wine trying to drink Bordeaux was a challenge due to my habits as a teen drinking too many sodas or as some so pop.
Agreed. We always enjoy visiting the Jackson properties in Oregon. I have enjoyed our visits to Gran Moraine, Willakenzie, and Penner Ash. Only issue I have with them is the prices at Willakenzie really went up after they took over. I understand the bias towards more small producers and that many of the large conglomerates have come in and quickly destroyed the wineries they bought but Jackson seems to be an outlier. Not sure what it is but maybe they keep the accountants locked up in a basement in Santa Rosa far away from where the real work is done.
Yep. Just look at what people are ordering at Starbucks. None of them are ordering coffee. They are all ordering milkshakes.
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Completely agree here. Among others, Hartford Court and Stonestreet have always been very reliable for me, and the 1997 Lokoya Diamond Mountain Cab is one of the top 2-3 California Cabs I have had.
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It doesn’t taste like manure… it just smells like it.