TDG: Wine Camp: The Perfect Vintage

[Fat Guy]

Wine Spectator says it's a perfect vintage. Can you guess what Craig Camp says?

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[Mark Sommelier]

Craig,

One question you asked was: "So, why does a magazine like The Wine Spectator prefer a vintage like 2000 while the producers prefer 1999 and 2001? The answer may lie in the three wines above. "

No, the answer lies in how much wine these guys have to sell before the 2000 vintage has been sold. Wine Spectator takes advertising dollars. How partial do you think they are with Banfi and Gallo?

[Andre]

Craig is my friend

Wine Spectator is no doubt driving this holly place the wrong way. This is very wrong. Those who taste the wines in WS are trained to seek power rather than complexity on the one hand, and show off with the "in" producers on the other.

The WS statement is very much the swell of no return. Several years ago they rated some of the 1994 port wines "100" [Fonseca, Tylor ] prices broke into outer space in no time. Cult wines? I think we have enough of those and this marketing strategy proved wrong on the long run.

[Carlovski]

Craig,

I am slightly confused - The wine you rated as A+ you stated would require 10 years aging.

Is that rating based on how the wine will be in 10 years? If so, that shows remarkable foresight, and if you mean now, what 'Mark' would it be worth then?

[Craig Camp]

Craig,

I am slightly confused - The wine you rated as A+ you stated would require 10 years aging.

Is that rating based on how the wine will be in 10 years? If so, that shows remarkable foresight, and if you mean now, what 'Mark' would it be worth then?

The rating is based on a combination this wine's obvious quality now and my confidence that it will indeed be a great wine in the future. It is not difficult to judge the potential of a wine made in such a classic style - a style that has proven over and over again its ability to produce age-worthy wine. In fact the Poderi Colla wine is made with aging in mind as it is the only way nebbiolo from a great vineyard can reach its full potential of complexity. I also based on my judgment from almost 30 years of professionally tasting Barolo.

It is my personal opinion and assessment of the wine.

The idea of a 'mark' for drinking the wine today is to ignore the nature of the wine, vineyard and the intention of the winemaker. It is a great wine today in the sense of its potential, but wines like this require the full participation of the drinker to bring them to their fullest potential. The winemaker made a great wine. What the consumer does to the wine is out of his control.

I drank the wine over a six day period and enjoyed every glass because I admired the potential of the wine and how it expanded and changed over those days. However at this point the pleasure in this wine is more intellectual than hedonistic.

[futronic]

Excellent article, Craig.

Can you recommend any enotecas in Piemonte, around Alba, Barbaresco, Neive, small towns in between, that you think have a good selection and good prices? I know of the Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco and the Enoteca at Marchesi di Barolo, but do you think they would offer good pricing for the wine available?

Since I'll be in Alba during Barbaresco 2001 and likely attending one of the dinners during the festival, I'll be looking to pick up many bottles from the 2001 vintage and don't want to get hosed on pricing when I can it elsewhere.

[Craig Camp]

As I tend to buy my wines over here in Lombardia we will reach out to Mr. Klapp for advice as he shops over there. My experience is the prices can be high (for Italy) around Alba because of all the tourism.

If you are visiting wineries carry cash and ask to buy a six-pack although the really rare bottles will be hard to get.

[giovanni]

Craig,

Well said. Great article.

[futronic]

Thanks Craig. Hopefully Bill will chime in when he get a minute.

With respect to buying six-packs at wineries, I don't think that will be an option (unless it's a mixed pack). I will likely only have enough room to bring back 30-36 bottles of wine and I'd like to get a variety.

[Barolo Boy 69]

Great article Craig. The WS article is good and bad for those of us who

love and love to sell Barolo and Barbaresco as we will now have customers

overlooking the 99's (many being late released here in the states as the

pipeline was full and many not having $$ to spend last spring) and asking

for those 2M's! Just another front opening in the Barolo war. Suckling

boxed himself when he rated 1997 99 points. I guess the 101 point scale is

sure to follow. Perhaps even stranger is the "Decanter" assessment of 95-01

Piedmont vintages. I log onto their web site once in a while and found myself

opening up thier vintage assesment file. Try it yourself, I guarantee quite

a hoot.

[Barolo Boy 69]

Just went to Decanter.com for Barolo etc. 1998 3 of 5 stars but

1995 5 of 5 stars. 1999 2 of 5 stars and 1996 5 stars but drink up!!!

[Craig Camp]

Just went to Decanter.com for Barolo etc. 1998 3 of 5 stars but

1995 5 of 5 stars. 1999 2 of 5 stars and 1996 5 stars but drink up!!!

That's bizarre!

[ctgm]

As I've said before and as CC writes how can mother nature be perfect. Perhaps if WS & WA are going to keep on marking things 100 they should mark it 100/101 with 101 never being achievable!! Otherwise 99 should always be the top score.

[docsconz]

Yet another outstanding article! How do you do it, Craig? 1999 is the birth year of my youngest son. I'm always on the lookout for good wines with strong aging potential to put away for him.

The more familiar I am with WS, the more I run the other way. My experience is that their ratings are inconsistent, unreliable and appear to be based on non-quality factors. The sad thing is that because of their inconsistency sometimes they are right.

[primowino]

I was at a large wine tasting event here in Edinburgh recently and spoke to some burgundy and bordeaux producers about this year's vintage. The general opinion seems to be that it is a bit patchy, because it was just too dry for most of the summer. Has anyone else heard similar stories for France? No doubt when the wine's start to appear on the shelves it will have been a "miracle" vintage.

[ctgm]

I was at a tasting earlier this week hosted by one of my Bordeaux negociants and he brought along two or three 2003 samples. The fact that he brought some along means that he is very confident in them and to be honest 1 of the 3 was good and the other 2 were OK. Without mentioning any names they were all classified growths albeit at the less prestigious end of the scale.

He also said that there would likely be a price rise over the 2002 of about 20%!!!! the reason is that there is a small crop (lets see if the price drops when they have a big crop!!) and because of the "superb" quality of the vintage.

Now I know that the French generally think that every vintage is fantastic and that all price rises are justified, but I hope that we are not going to have another 1997. When I told him that I thought that the Bordelais were rather unrealistic with their pricings and didn't totally understand the end buyer and their thoughts on prices, this was (arrogantly) ignored and I was told that the price also had to go up to protect the 2001!

(PS He also told me that it costs over $10 to make a bottle of wine in Bordeaux! Funny that when I was making wine in Bordeaux it cost about $3 but that was in 1993. "Aaah" he says, "prices have risen a lot since then"!!)

[rifle13]

Sorry to be weighing in so late here, but registering isn't the fast and easy process I was anticipating...

Perfect vintage - the Wine Spectator has engaged in the ultimate hyperbole and left themselves nowhere to go. Other vintages from other areas can only match this one, not exceed it, in quality (not to mention that the entire concept of rating a vintage is a specious one, what with vineyards planted over hundreds of square miles).

I find it interesting that, so far, no wine has scored 100 points (but don't worry, Gaja still hasn't been rated yet). What does this say about the producers, if you care to believe that WS is a credible critic? I think it says "you had perfect grapes and conditions and still couldn't make perfect wine". I'll take this time to remind everyone that WS gave scores in the 50s to Bruno Giacosa's wines from the 1989 and 1990 vintage (of course, they went back and rerated them at a later point, so the original ratings don't show on their website or in the books). It was nice of them to give Bruno some love this time around, though. Maybe they felt like they owed it to him.

[Craig Camp]

Welcome Rifle 13 and thanks for joining in. Sorry the registration was so slow, but we just went through a major upgrade and are still working out the last bugs. Thanks for your patience.