Chenin Blanc and a rant on wine ratings

Over the last couple of years, I have become increasingly enamored of Chenin Blanc. First it was Foxen's single vineyard offering - crisp, bright and with enough fruit and complexity to both quaff on its own as well as with many lighter foods. Not cheap at $17, but well worth it over a number of vintages for me.

This year I was introduced to South African Chenin Blanc - actually reintroduced. The changes over the last ten years are great, and all good. Today, as I see it, SA CB is the best white wine value in the world. If you see any of it, buy it. Ken Forrester is an excellent, inexpensive and widely available brand, but I have been pretty happy with everything I have tried.

South African Chenin Blanc offers what New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc offered a few years ago. Cheap (most bottles are around $10), and irresistible if you are looking for a fresh, young white with pleasing fruit and complexity.

For whatever reason, I found myself looking at Wine Spectator ratings and notes for some Chenin Blancs and then began to compare them to ratings and notes for other wines, both white and red. I admit that there was a time when I was a wine rating follower, and I still am influenced by the ratings when I am buying wines I have not actually tasted. But my use of the ratings has evolved - where I used to look for the highest number available, now I generally like to buy wines rated between 88 and 92 in most cases. I read the notes more carefully to get an idea of the flavor profile, and I have come to understand at a high level the crushing uniformity that wine ratings tend to impose on winemakers.

Today I moved a little further on that path, as I got a better understanding of how WS rates certain wines. This has also helped me to understand why NZ Sauvignon Blanc has seemed to decline in quality as prices rose along with volume.

Based on my survey, I believe that the ideal dry, white wine for WS against which all others are measured is a creamy Chardonnay with a long, complex finish. They prefer nutty and yeasty flavors to be present, and while fruitiness has its value, the fruitiness should be apples, persimmon or quince, and not citrus, melon or anything herbal. White wines that meet these criteria, no matter the varietal, will receive higher ratings. I think this is correct because it corresponds to my observation of the decline in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

There is a lot that is wrong with this. First, it seems to create a hierarchy of varietals - it is very hard for any dry white other than a Chardonnay to deliver this flavor profile and thus to achieve a score of 94 or above. Second, it seems to push winemakers away from expressing the characteristics of the grape or terroir unless they follow that ideal profile. And lastly, and most important to me anyway, it is unlikely to agree with my preferences. I am all for a long, complex, finish, but I like a range of different flavors and profiles, depending on how I am consuming the wine, the weather, my mood, etc. And the ideal profile used by WS certainly corresponds with some of the most wonderful wines I have every enjoyed, but it is probably the flavor profile that I least often want to consume, not because I do not like it, but because it is inappropriate for most of the food I eat, and most often I prefer to drink a lighter wine on its own (not always).

The good news is that I found the notes quite useful; the bad news is that it became even more clear that the numeric ratings are useless at best, and profoundly harmful at worst. For wines rated above 90, they only work if I am looking for a creamy white wine, with very specific fruit flavors dominating and a long, complex finish. It gets worse if you focus on wines rated between 82 and 90. These wines are assumed to vary in some significant respect from that ideal profile. Does a crisp, fruity wine with a simple and short finish deserve a higher or lower score than a crisp fruity wine with a complex finish, but an imbalanced flavor from a mouth-puckering excess of acidity? The answer, if you look at the WS ratings is both higher and lower, depending on the wine. The real answer is that it depends on how you are drinking the wine - the former would be better on its own, while the latter could be an excellent match for any number of foods. Oh, and it depends on your taste and preferences, too.

So I plan to only look at tasting notes in the future (okay, I will continue to exclude from consideration any wine rated below 80), avoid most dry white wines described as creamy, and pray that winemakers continue to make wines that do not fit the ideal flavor profile.

I have been working on the best way to use wine ratings for a while, and I think this works.

I love CB be it from South Africa or the Loire Valley. I'll try your US version. Al; the US CB's I've tried pale in comparison to the Euro bottles I've had.

I look for bottles imported by Louis/Dresner lot's to choose from

dicksond wrote:Today I moved a little further on that path, as I got a better understanding of how WS rates certain wines. This has also helped me to understand why NZ Sauvignon Blanc has seemed to decline in quality as prices rose along with volume.

Are you attributing the "decline" in NZ Sauvignon Blanc to lower WS or WE ratings (due to citrusy/herbal notes), or is that your personal opinion?

If it's the former, and if the ratings declined, then that would imply that they were rated higher at some prior point. So, do you think the ratings standards have recenty changed?

If it's the latter, and its your personal opinion that the quality of NZ Sauvignon Blancs has declined, are you saying that the NZ winemakers recently have augmented their practices to account for the rater's tastes, and this has degraded the wine overall?

BTW, I do like South African Chenin Blancs quite a bit as a summer wine.

aschie30 wrote:
If it's the latter, and its your personal opinion that the quality of NZ Sauvignon Blancs has declined, are you saying that the NZ winemakers recently have augmented their practices to account for the rater's tastes, and this has degraded the wine overall?

BTW, I do like South African Chenin Blancs quite a bit as a summer wine.

The latter, as you say. Actually, it is a twofold challenge - first, I think they have tended to pursue a more "international style" to garner higher ratings for their wines. In practical terms, this means avoiding some of the fresh fruit and herbal notes, and going to a more muted, even creamier, style. This reduces a lot of the attraction. At the same time, the prices have crept up.

But even more so, they have seriously ramped up volumes for a lot of the (previously) best wines and that has resulted in a fundamental change in personality as the wines have, IMHO, become much more the product of the winemaking process, and much less a reflection of the grapes and terroir. Some have been more consistent than others, but it is much more hit and miss for the class.

Or maybe I just got bored of them? Same thing happened with Aussie Shiraz - what used to be a delightful wine and a fabulous deal gradually became an overwrought, industrial product that I mostly avoid. I suppose the same thing happened with California Chards earlier on, and Merlot almost everywhere (both of which seem to be making a recovery). Perhaps this is an inevitable cycle?

Not saying that there is an issue with every NZ SB or all Shirazes, but since the ones that are made in massive quantities are the ones dominating store shelves, it has turned what was once a guaranteed place to find a good wine at a great price into a place where one is most likely to find a mediocre wine.

So these days I tend to focus on German and American Rieslings and Chenin Blanc for whites (with some selective Chardonnays, though they are not cheap for the most part), and for cheap, drinkable reds I must admit my cellar holds a lot of Cameron Hughes Cabs, plus a mix of lots of different things, depending on what catches my eye, including some Italian, Argentinian, California, Washington, Spain, Southern France and who knows what. I find the CH stuff the most reliable and well-priced, but it is not a style that I like for every day so I keep dabbling here and there. Had some high hopes for some of the Cru Beaujolais last year, but I still find most of the ones I taste too thin to be truly interesting. Central Coast Pinots hold a lot more interest for me, but it is not easy to find a good, simple one at a reasonable price - and when I do, it is usually gone by the time I have tasted it and go back for more.

I also have flirted with US and French Cab Franc, but have the same problem as with the Pinots, only even worse. I know there are some lovely, light CFs from the Loire at a reasonable price, but try finding them in the US.