The Mondovino Argument
The Star Tribune ran a short article last week about the controversy over wine rankings: "Winemakers, sommeliers, retailers and even some wine writers have complained for years that the most influential wine critics love only sweet, overripe, excessively oaked wines that don't age well and don't complement food."
Jonathan Nossiter explored made this argument in his 2004 documentary Mondovino.
The movie isn't mentioned in the Star Tribune article, but the cast of villians is the same: wine critic Robert Parker, who can make or break a vineyard but only likes certain types of wine; and wine consultant Michel Rolland, who advises vineyards on how to make their wine taste good to Parker (there is a hilarious montage in the film showing Rolland on his cell phone talking to a number of vineries, telling each to "micro-oxigenate, micro-oxigenate").
The movie is long but worth it if you're interested in wine, globalization, or dogs.
(And my advice on picking the right wine? Ask the employees.)
posted by Luke Francl @ 8:30 PM |
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5 Comments:
I use the 85 rule, if it gets rated higher that 85 by the different wine rags then it is probably good.
Often the merchant or the vinyard will have placards at the point of sale pointing out the ratings. Price is often unrelated to rating. I have gotten some excellent wine for $5-6 with this method.
Dave
I also often go by the wine rag ratings, which is the problem that the Star Tribune article points out. The argument is that these highly rated wines all taste the same and don't go well with food.
Then again, a study showed that most wine critics can't even tell the difference between red and white wine in a blind taste test. So it probably doesn't matter one way or another.
I saw Mondovino when it was at the Lagoon. I thought it was a great film and it really got me angry (which I think was one of its purposes). It reminded me a lot of the whole corporatist campaign.
dogs?
For real.
The cameraman had something for dogs. Whenever there was one running around, he'd shoot video of it.
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