“I like the idea of wine critics disagreeing publicly, but they should be forced to work out their differences in cage fighting.”

Prefer a wine journo version of Celebrity Death Match myself…

Interesting that you bring up the people that Asimov tastes with. I’m confused as to their role. Fabricant et al always get one quote in the tasting panel stories to reflect their views, but when Asimov kindly came to talk to my NYU class six years ago, he said that the scores and notes were solely his own and not a compilation of the comments or a vote of the group. Here’s the link:
http://www.drvino.com/2006/12/08/decanting-critic-eric-asimov/

Frank Prial really didn’t like the tasting panel format, which was introduced toward the end of his time as wine critic. He told me once that the Times doesn’t send multiple reviewers to a Broadway show, for example. He also said that the tasting panel was the creation of former executive editor Howell Raines in response to the WSJ’s “Dow Jones TKTK Index” in which John and Dottie gave a short list of recommended wines. In a way, it’s interesting that the Times tasting panel outlived the Dow Jones Wine Index reviews. But that column does seem formulaic often times (lead with a few general grafs of intro; add “Florence Fabricant and I were joined by…”; have a few quick hits on the wines.) But it, no doubt, provides the actionable information that wine consumers seem to crave and when I check in with the col, the recs seem quite solid on the whole.

I do think that an explanatory footnote in the online and mobile editions about how the wines were selected and procured would be helpful. Ditto, whether the star ratings and TNs are Asimov’s alone or a compilation (and if they remain his alone, then I guess Prial’s point about why the TImes invites the guests should be addressed).

You can call it prejudice; I call it judgment, since I’ve done an awful lot of drinking to get to it. The fact remains that I have found no Chenin Blanc from anywhere outside the Loire that comes close to ringing my bell. And South African Chenin Blanc has been especially consistently off the mark, for my palate.

I haven’t tasted a ton of South African wines; but I haven’t tasted a much Austrian Gruner or Mosel Riesling or New Zealand Sauv Blanc, and those usually deliver.

Maybe it’s just a matter of availability. Maybe it’s bad luck. Maybe the next SA Chennin I taste will change my mind. But I’m not surprised that somebody went to a SA Chenin tasting and didn’t find anything they liked

The reason why Asimov is worth reading, is because he actually thinks. He understands the limitation of what he does and openly discusses it.

The facts were he tasted 20 wines and he did not like a lot of them. The facts were they are supposed to be the top producers. In any wine region, that result would have been strange … something is wrong. He leaves the topic open for discussion. End off. Why is that so difficult to accept?

If he is allowed to dislike what he does not like, surely he should be allowed to air his views without being attacked?

Interestingly, because of his article, I am even MORE inclined to taste SA Chenin Blancs, to see if there is something wrong. Otherwise, I would have just assumed they were perfectly fine and continued to taste Vouvrays …

“Has my taste changed? Or have the wines? Or was this an anomalous tasting that warrants another look before too long?”

…so what’s everybody’s problem? He’s not exactly claiming to be authoritative.