Critics

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Yesterday I mentioned two of my favorite wine critics. Today I want to talk about what I think makes a wine critic valuable.

After I wrote my program about the reasons I like wine writers and critics John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter of the Wall Street Journal I read an article about someone who dislikes them for the very reason I admire them. Go figure. But what to me makes a good wine critic is someone who makes the topic approachable and understandable for others. Yes, a wine critic needs a good perception of taste, they also need to have a good memory for what they taste. In addition they should have a degree of wine education so they come from a place of knowledge. They also need the ability to withstand long wine-tasting sessions involving many wines. As I tell you often taste is not entirely focused on the tongue. Our nose and brain play an enormous part in tour perception of a wine. It is complicated and I think a good critic recognizes this and works at their explanation of what they are experiencing and most of all how it is pertinent to you. The fact that they are able to articulate all of that and relieve us from the pretentious condescending manor of others in their field. That is what, to me, makes an admirable wine critic. Remember to send your wine questions to linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.