This is the ongoing loss of style and sense of place in wines, with some elegance and complexity, initiated by Robert Parker giving high scores to high-alcohol, tannic, fruit bombs with no sense of place. Many in the industry changed their traditional wine-making practices to chase high scores. This trickled down to table wines. Sad to watch evolve.
Tom: You have been in this game longer than I and your comments are spot-on! One reader reflected back on the 1980s' James Arthur Fields' wines "White" and "Red" that changed from year to year and represented excellent value. The wines always had good acidity and although they were non-place wines, they were sound dry table wines. There are still places in this world that produce this kind of wine, as you know, but they are fewer and farther between.
As someone who has been in the industry since the 1970's, I love to read Dan's comments. I wish he named more names about the wines he appreciates.
This is the ongoing loss of style and sense of place in wines, with some elegance and complexity, initiated by Robert Parker giving high scores to high-alcohol, tannic, fruit bombs with no sense of place. Many in the industry changed their traditional wine-making practices to chase high scores. This trickled down to table wines. Sad to watch evolve.
Tom: You have been in this game longer than I and your comments are spot-on! One reader reflected back on the 1980s' James Arthur Fields' wines "White" and "Red" that changed from year to year and represented excellent value. The wines always had good acidity and although they were non-place wines, they were sound dry table wines. There are still places in this world that produce this kind of wine, as you know, but they are fewer and farther between.