The April 2006 issue of Decanter gives results for a tasting of 197
North American Pinot Noirs. Those of you who follow Decanter likely are
well aware that the UK taste and the US taste for N American wines
often seems to differ considerably. The panel found 2
outstanding(Decanter award), 13 very good to excellent(highly
recommended), 106 good(recommended), 62 fair( and 14 poor wines. One of
the two outstanding wines was Argyle Nuthouse Oregon 2003, and they did
not have a UK price for this. The other outstanding wine wasWente,
Reliz Creek Reserve, Arroyo Seco, Monterey County 2003 ! It sells for
12.99 to 14.25 Pounds in the UK. In contrast, they rated Domaine
Drouhin, Laurene 2001 two steps down as only recommended, and it sells
for 33 Pounds in the UK. There were 10 tasters on the panel, with 3
being MW.

Good info, CW [I don't know how to address you, by the way, with a signature
like that]. Thanks for posting the pointer.

"cwdjrxyz" in oups.com:
> . . . The panel found 2 outstanding ...13 very good to excellent (highly
> recommended), 106 good (recommended), 62 fair and 14 poor wines.

As a point of historical information, similar coarse but useful categories
were the standard of practice of US wine newsletters in the past, but were
displaced when the newer, "100-point" scales became popular in the 1980s.
(Strangely, 5-grade scales were popular,* 100-point scales were popular, but
the 20-point "Davis" scale, intermediate in resolution and heavily marketed
in the 1970s, never caught on.)

-- Max



* And remain so for other products, as in a longstanding US Dept. of
Agriculture meat-grade scale, in existence for decades with small
variations, such as Prime/Choice/Good/Utility/Pet.

On Thu, 9 Mar 2006 23:59:07 -0800, "Max Hauser"
> wrote:

>Good info, CW [I don't know how to address you, by the way, with a signature
>like that]. Thanks for posting the pointer.
>
>"cwdjrxyz" in oups.com:
>> . . . The panel found 2 outstanding ...13 very good to excellent (highly
>> recommended), 106 good (recommended), 62 fair and 14 poor wines.
>
>As a point of historical information, similar coarse but useful categories
>were the standard of practice of US wine newsletters in the past, but were
>displaced when the newer, "100-point" scales became popular in the 1980s.
>(Strangely, 5-grade scales were popular,* 100-point scales were popular, but
>the 20-point "Davis" scale, intermediate in resolution and heavily marketed
>in the 1970s, never caught on.)
>
>-- Max

I suspect that the Decanter rankings will appeal to the predominantly
British audience and consequently drive the prices of the highlighted
wines out of sight. (I gave up my subscription to Decanter a few years
ago when I reaffirmed that America and Britain were two peoples
separated by a common language.)

And, let me comment on the beauty of that "100-point" scale--that's
the one in which only the fifteen points between 80 and 95 are ever
used to rate wines....;-)



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com