Gabe's View on Tasting

Special thanks to Gabe from Gabe's View for his views on reviews!

Cat has asked me to check in today and speak to how I go about reviewing wines, so here I am. There will be a link to this post from my blog, Gabe's View. First of all I should mention that I don’t currently use a numbered rating system. It’s not that I’m philosophically opposed to them, they have a place, it’s just not the direction I’ve chosen to go. My approach starts with being a writer first. From there, I take a great deal of time considering each individual wine and doing the best job I can every time out in describing what the wines taste like to me and how my palate reacts to them. Along those lines I’m equally concerned that the words I use to describe them are carefully considered and well put together.

In terms of evaluating the wine and deciding to recommend it or not I take several things into consideration. Quality seems like an obvious one so I’ll just mention it. While it’s certainly possible to simply evaluate a wine on it’s own with no other considerations I take several other things into account. Perhaps one of the less obvious elements I look at is intent. A $10 wine made in prodigious quantities can’t in my mind be considered the same way as a $50 wine of which a few hundred or a few thousand cases were made, let alone highly allocated wines made in tiny quantities. In each case the winery or winemaker had different goals and plans for each wine. My goal in looking at intent is to decide if they met what my impression of that wines goal or intent was. An example of this is the Gnarly Head Cabernet Sauvignon I reviewed the other day. 100,000 cases of it were made and it’s commonly available for $10. For that price it does a good job. Clearly though, it’s not meant to fill the same parameters a single vineyard Cabernet from Oakville would.

In terms of how I actually go about things, my usual approach is to taste the wine by itself first. Then I continue by pairing it with whatever I’m eating that day. Most of the people reading my reviews are going to drink the wines with a meal. Taking that into account I evaluate them with a meal and often comment on how they went with that particular food. Many times after having the wine with a meal I take it back with me to my computer, or over to the couch if I’m parking myself there for awhile. This allows the wine to continue breathing and gives me the chance to evaluate it further. As an extension of this I’ll sometimes re-taste a wine after it’s been open for a full 24 hours. If it has held or improved I make a point of commenting on that as it speaks at least to a degree to that wines shelf life.

A few times a year I run a series I call “12 Days of…” where I focus on 1 varietal for 12 days. In those instances I often taste 2 or 3 wines side by side each day over a period of time and then write about several each day. This approach allows me to take a quick peek at one varietal over a semi-extended period. The wines chosen for these situations are a combination of various things. I try to mix and match well known examples, somewhat obscure or small production offerings and wines I’ve never had. On top of that I usually mix in some I’m quite familiar with so I can check in with how they’re doing in their current vintages. The ones I know well can also act as a measuring stick of sorts for the unfamiliar ones.

In selecting wines to write about I tend towards those that speak to me. I’m only going to be able to write about a small percentage of the wines out there so I prefer to spend my time and energy with the ones I’m passionate about. As long as a wine moves me or impresses me for some reason or another I’ll write about it. Sometimes that’s simply because it’s an amazing bottle, in other cases it’s due the particular release being it’s a good value that’s widely available. Or perhaps the wine strikes me a filling a particular niche well. People sometimes ask if I write negative reviews. I will but it’s rare. A wine needs to stand out as truly terrible for me to be moved to write about it. Words don’t come as quickly or easily for marginal wines. With good and great offerings, the words tend to come easily. Many of those reviews seem to write themselves.

As for what I drink? Well I’m willing to taste just about anything. My penchant leans towards the smaller productions and more obscure. But I tend to taste and write about just as many large production wines as I do smaller offerings. There aren’t any varietals I don’t like, but of course I have my preferences. My tendency is towards things made in what strikes me as their natural style. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made with Burgundian intent. Merlot made with structure and age ability in mind. Deep, dark and brooding Petite Sirah etc. The list goes on.

I’d like to thank Cat for offering me the opportunity to share my thoughts about tasting on her blog. If anyone has any questions feel free to e-mail me through the contact form on my site, which I of course hope you check out.