November 12th - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

Every once in a while I come across a post that is so imaginative and hilarious that is makes me laugh audibly (or LOL for you hip young folks), and possibly even wet myself a little. This week Joe Roberts, THE 1WineDude, had a great post about the alleged abductions of Pennsylvania shoppers by the state's "MCP" Wine Kiosks. It's like I always say, "you have to be watchful at all times for self-aware machines".

Image taken from 1WineDude.com

The Bad

One of the issues that has been a plague on the online wine world, is the lack of credible information to be found online. This is an issue for consumers, for bloggers, and even for wineries. The last year has seen some progress in this area, but there is still a lot of work to be done, and some of it can't really be addressed by anyone other than the sources of the content. Dr. Vino has a great post up detailing the results of some web surfing that he did, and calling more attention to the paucity of credible info online. 

I did want to call attention to the efforts of the peeps at Cruvee to develop a resource to gather information about wines and wineries into an easily accessible location. Although they are fighting an uphill battle, they are doing good work. Adoption is still an issue, but as time goes on there have been more and more developments that have made this technology a useful tool for wineries and for those looking for information about wineries and wines.

The Ugly

The state of Washington had a blogging firestorm erupt this week over one of the state's most respected and critically acclaimed wineries. The hubbub all started with a post from Kori Voorhees of the WinePeeps blog, in which Voorhees detailed the results of a laboratory analysis of Cayuse wine that indicated that the wine contained abnormally high levels of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS. Voorhees' post branded Cayuse as a flawed wine, and chalked up the unique characteristics of Cayuse wines to flaws, rather than the terroir that these traits have generally been ascribed to by wine writers.

The post prompted Sean Sullivan of Washington Wine Report to issue a response, in which he pointed out some flaws in the WinePeeps analysis and reporting. Although Sullivan has spoken positively of Cayuse wines in the past, his response to Voorhees was directed more at the logic employed in the post and at gaps in the information.

This post isn't the right forum for me to go into a response to this issue, although I do have some thoughts on the issue that I would be happy to discuss. Regardless, a look at the comment thread for the WinePeeps post will show how much of a ruckus was raised by this post. Cayuse wines have been held up as some of the most sought after wines produced in Washington, so the allegations have naturally elicited quite an uproar. Should be interesting to see if we have heard the last of this issue.

Cheers!

Comments

[1winedude]

Thanks for the mention, but totally sorry if I made you wet yourself!

[Steven Washuta]

Thanks for pointing out the Cayuse issue - that had slipped completely beneath my radar. I personally love Cayuse wines, and I wouldn't consider excessive levels of any compound (except TCA) a flaw, as varying levels of compounds is what creates terroir and what makes wines interesting. If they were all produced in the lab I'd be looking for a new career.

[1WineDude]

So... spill it, what *are* your thoughts on the Cayuse thang?

I'm of the mind that any wine esther-type component that cannot be at least partially controlled by some means is potentially a flaw.

Also, anyone who likes aromas of rotten eggs and burning cabbage in their wines (not saying Cayuse has those - I've not tried the wine in question there) probably deserves to overpay for a faulty wine! :)

[Vinotology]

Thanks Steven. I thought that you might find this whole thing interesting. It's created quite the stir here in Washington.

[Vinotology]

Really my opinion is more directed at the way the situation was handled than the wine itself, which I also have not had the opportunity to really try much of. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the wines are flawed, but I think that the kind of "journalism" that was used to supposedly prove the case is an example of why bloggers sometimes get a bad rep in the industry. You can't go around throwing around allegations like the one that they made without the proof being more rock-solid. So, whether the wines are flawed or not, the burden of proof is on the writer making the accusation, and I don't think that enough proof was brought in this case to really make a determination.