Winegazer TV Episode 20: Red Blends from Washington State

Nice show! Col Solare is one of my faves from Washington.
I think number ratings can be useful. However, I think it depends on the reviewer. There are some bozo’s out there that make me want to throw up. Also, some folks that take it serious and provide a valuable reference point. Having said that. It helps to know the reviewers palate.

I might add, a brief description should accompany the score. So that the consumer has a bit more information.

I wonder, would the folks at Hedges be willing to say…”this wine did not turn out as good as last years vintage”? I doubt it. One of their lower end releases is one of the few that I poured down the drain. Maybe I might give them another chance.

Hey Scott, Great episode with great information about Washington’s wine region and great wine descriptions. Good composure in front of the camera, i think you’re settling in. As for wine rating – i find them occasionally helpful, but the 100 pt scale is pompous, and mainly used by big dogs like Parker, James suckling to rate pompous wines 95pts or higher and if they get 95 pts instead of 100 they are pissed, b/c they probably paid parker or james thousands of dollars for the review…haha so ya really pompous if you ask me. Seriously what’s the difference between a 91 to 92 wine or 98 to 99 to 100 it all gets to be a bit much. it’s either an absolutely amazing wine, a very good wine, an average wine or a wine that sucks. I think the critics are full of shit most of the time. tasting notes are much more helpful. I use a 5 star system – seems to make more sense.

Very Nice Scott. Glad to see you are 20 Episodes into this journey. I have had the Hedges before and was not overly impressed. The Col Solare I have been eying for awhile and may just have to pull the trigger on this. Keep up the good work brother. Very Nice!

I’m on some sort of the same path. And when critics tend to use 50-100 points and then ad minus and plus to that we have a 150 different possible scorings and if you give over 16 100 points ( as for Bordeaux 2009) and and another 11 get 99 or 99 + I also wonder what is the difference for an amateur like me?

Thanks Treborrr! I am now curious to try different vintages of Col Solare if I can find them. I also want to re-taste the Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain blend based on what others have said about it. I seemed to like it more than other people have. I agree with you that the description of the wine and finding a reviewer that has a similarly aligned palate is key. It’s really crazy because at the Whole Foods market where I buy wine on a regular basis. The will have a shelf-sticker that says “90 Points!” but it won’t say who scored the wine and it won’t have even a basic description of the wine! How is that helpful? Cheers, Scott

Thanks for the compliments Brad! I have decided that I am going to stop using the 100-point rating system, it just doesn’t make sense to me anymore. Now I just need to decide A+ to F-, 1-10, or 5-stars! You’ll have to wait to for next weeks episode on Pinot Gris from Oregon to see which scoring system I adopt! Hahaha! Cheers, Scott

@AndersN – When you look at the wine reviews out there and the majority of them have scores between, let’s just say for the sake of argument 87 – 93 points why do you need a scale of 50 – 100 points? I’m done with it! I’m going to use a different system going forward starting with the episode I’m filming this weekend on Pinot Gris from Oregon. Cheers, Scott

Thanks Dan! I’ve been so busy with things that I forgot to celebrate the milestone of getting to 20 episodes! I definitely am going to re-taste the Hedges again, because you are like the 3rd person who I’ve talked to who thought that it was a mediocre wine. Maybe I got caught up with the excitement of trying these wines from WA! Hahaha! Cheers, Scott

Costco has Col Solare for 45 bucks. Maybe just here in Wa?
I’ve had the 05 and it was outstanding. Try looking at trader joes also.