Is wine criticism just bunk?

Following Tim Hanni article on the Guardian, I want to add my opinion on the subject. The article is based on the comments made by wine expert Tim Hanni that consumers should ignore wines critics and just drink what they like. I always wrote and said that the palate develops with tasting, the more we taste the more we learn about wine and the more we become experts. We can be more or less talented but time and tastings can make up for it. On the other side, tasting is different from drinking and enjoying a glass of wine. I taste plenty of wines every day as part of my job description, however, I do not drink all of them. A fantastic wine, a faultless wine, is not always something I would enjoy drinking. A wine well made is different from a wine I would pick and drink. Wine critics are experts that taste a certain wine and rate it, but a good score does not always guaranteed that you will love the wine and if you don’t, there is nothing wrong with you, the wine is simply not of your taste and it could be so for many reasons.

In the same article, Hanni also “argues that nothing makes Moët objectively "better" than Lambrini : it's all just pomp and profit” but in this case I completely disagree with it. A Moet is definitely better than a Lambrini, like it or not, but on the other side, there are plenty of champagnes better than Moet. I believe that every palate can appreciate a good, well made wine, whether experienced taster or not and this is the beauty of wine. Like art, whether expert or not, we all remain speechless in front of a good painting. The other bit worth mentioning is that wines are assessed on the basis of a sip, literally a taste, however, there are many elements that can determine the outcome of the tasting outside the control of the wine expert and these cannot always be extrapolated from the result. Rating a wine based on a taste, without knowing anything else about it, could also produce the wrong outcome and I say that based on several episodes I have witnessed.

I only want to mention two episodes here for space but there are more and you read about them on previous entries. A couple of years ago, I entered the same wine in to two different competitions, in one was rated one of the best wines overall, on the other competition, the wine did not even receive a mention. So, same wine, two completely different outcomes and some of the judges were the same. The second episode related to a wine entered again in a wine competition, the wine was awarded a silver medal but did not got the gold one because according to the judges it had “too much tannins”, however, if the judge had known the history of the wine, they would have know that it only needed a bit more time to soften. Now the wine is ready and is perfect, not only is well made but is wine I love, the wine is called Preziosaterra . If you don’t know what tannins are, send me an email to andrea@italyabroad.com and I will be happy to answer it.