Tom Standage, the author of "A History of the World in Six Glass", has an interesting editorial in the Herald Tribune today. In essence he is making the argument that wine and status is a manufactured pairing that that we should rank wines not based on what a reviewer says but rather on our own taste.
It's a pretty common refrain, isn't it?.
How many times have you heard this:
"So put not your faith in wine rankings imposed from on high by god-like critics."
Too many times. Doesn't this go without saying?
However, let me be so bold as to suggest the following:
INDEED, PUT YOUR FAITH IN CRITICS FOR THERE IS TOO MUCH WINE TO KNOW ON YOUR OWN!
This is the most important rationale for honoring critics with your attention in today's wine world. If we are interested in wine, if we enjoy drinking wine, if we long to know more about wine, but if we have more to do than drink wine, we have a problem. We can't try every wine to determine if we should purchase quantities of it. We need some help.
This is where the critic can be of tremendous help. By relying on the palate of a well-drunken critic we have a short cut to follow. But of course the question is who to follow. It's not like there is a lack of critics out there. There must be at least 100 drinkers who test and write about wine on a regular basis just in America. Who do you follow.
Here is the best and quickest way to determine who to give your fealty to.
Find six or seven wine critics who have reviewed the same wine. Look for critics who both give rankings and descriptions. Then, buy the wine. Taste it. Write your own notes. Then give it a ranking between 1 and 10, ten being the wine you can't live without, one being the wine you would never drink again under any circumstances.
Now compare the critics' reviews and rankings of this wine to yours. Find the critic who most closely matches your take on the wine. Voila. You've found the critic that matches your palate.
It's best to do this with at least three different wines. The more you compare, the better you can calibrate your palate with a critic.
