The Wine Critic's Critic: Jamie Goode: The wine industry’s Anorak and Head Teacher. 87/100 points

'Jamie was born to teach. He has huge breadth and depth of knowledge, and he has that rare gift of being able to distil complex subjects into meaningful and easily digestible words, and do it in an interesting way. He doesn't possess the bigger resources of some other critics but his website and work are outstanding. He is right up there with the world's best critics, and often betters them'.

Jamie’s own sobriquet is the Wine Anorak which reflects his credentials as an expert in plant biology (he has a PhD no less) which is a useful entrée into the world of wine. His scientific background must make him one of the best qualified to write about wine. But don’t be fooled by his paper persona as a geek – his site appeals to all and his style is very personable.

Jamie was born to teach. I love his site and the way he imparts knowledge. Where James Suckling’s style and commentary are flamboyant and, some would argue, lacking in substance, Jamie’s is brimming with substance and science. It is full of juicy bits of information addressing such subjects as the science or otherwise of tasting, bottle closures, microbes, the science of wine making and its sustainability. These topics appeal as much to the professional trade as they do to the expert amateur like me.

But he is also adept at appealing to the average consumer too. Just in the last 6 months, he has covered wines of Stellenbosch, California, Alsace, Chile, Priorat, Georgia, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, Bordeaux and Israel to name but a few. All are written on subjects and in a way which would appeal to the average consumer. He is also adept at using social media to communicate with his thousands of followers.

He is a prolific taster and his tasting notes and vineyard visits, some combined with video, are simple to read whilst giving the reader a very good understanding of what is in the glass. He often combines these with restaurant reviews, bringing the wines to life (see his latest one on Chez Bruce, one of my favourite restaurants in the world and where I would take my wife-to- be 16 years ago when we lived in London).

His site also has features where he focuses on a specific area (e.g. Chile) or grower (e.g. Bruno Paillard and Eben Sadie) or topic (e.g. the concept of a noble wine and carbonic maceration). I like his ability to have a point of view on all subjects vinous as well as an array of other subjects – football, cricket, religion. This makes him a much more interesting writer and personality than some of the other wine critics out there who just seem to be writing for themselves and other wine bores.

On tasting notes, Jamie writes very clearly. Here is an example of one of his tasting notes from Chez Bruce. It is classic Jamie Goode – accurate, measured and evocative. He makes you really want to taste the wine.

Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile 2001 Alsace, France. Beautifully delicate but full flavoured at the same time, this is the special anniversary bottling. Citrus, melon, a hint of lychee, some creaminess. Delicate and precise with a lovely crystalline fruit quality, and with fruit sweetness that adds a rounded character. 95/100.

His depth and breadth of knowledge are very impressive and he knows how to communicate complex subjects. As we know from our school days, this is the real skill of great teachers. Knowledge is irrelevant without the passion and ability to impart it to the audience.

His site is the antithesis of Suckling’s and Jancis’ sites in terms of slickness, structure and functionality, but despite this, it just oozes class, passion, personality and knowledge.

Where jamesuckling.com is a boy band, jamiegoode.com is a real musician.

I know that Jamie has built this site himself, from the ground up, over many years which is testament to his dedication and abilities in web application development. He is clearly a very clever bloke.

Here are my scores for Jamie and jamiegoode.com

Read on. The Wine Critic's Critic: James Molesworth (Wine Spectator): The Wine Industry's Alchemist.

The Wine Critic's Critic: John Livingstone-Learmonth: The wine industry’s Cricket captain. 83/100 points.

'JLL's site is the antithesis of James Suckling’s and Jancis Robinson's sites in terms of slickness, structure and functionality, but it just oozes class, passion, personality and knowledge. Unlike burghound.com, this is a site dripping with love and soul, not legal and commercial mumbo-jumbo'.

The quintessential Englishman, he is dapper, erudite, affable and quick-witted, like Colin Cowdrey, the former England Cricket batsman. JLL is the master of his specialist area, the wines of the Northern and Southern Rhone, whilst also practising as a communication training expert.

Like Cowdrey, he has amazing longevity. He has been batting at the crease in the Rhone valley for over 40 years and his mastery of its characters, nuances and old wines is unrivalled. He was learning about this area nearly a decade before Parker discovered it. Key players in the region such as Christine Vernay and her husband Paul Anseleme venerate him for his vast knowledge going back to the days when he would wine and dine with Christine’s father, Georges Vernay.

His site is the antithesis of James Suckling’s and Jancis’ sites in terms of slickness, structure and functionality, but despite its clunkiness (although I notice that JLL has just upgraded his site), it just oozes class, passion, personality and knowledge. Like Meadow’s site, burghound.com, this is a stellar example of the online specialist communicator. But unlike burghound.com, this is a site dripping with love and soul, not legal and commercial mumbo-jumbo.

I admit that I am a Rhone fanatic so have a soft spot for this site. It is full of information gathered over 40 years and John allows you to access it in many ways. You have regular monthly updates on what has been happening in the region and extensive tasting notes and information about each appellation in the North and South Rhone, from the well known to small artisan wine growers. It also has a glossary of terms.

I love his features of ‘Goings on’, ‘Veterans corner’ and ‘Where to eat and stay’. He also makes a big play on WOW wines (‘what one wants’ – or wines which immediately declare pleasure) and STGT (soil to glass transfer - wines that are very low on intervention, that reflect truthfully their place of origin). He gets excited about these wines, the grower being undoubtedly aware of the importance of terroir, and of his or her role in coaxing that out. Coverage of up and coming areas – Rasteau, Roaix, Cairanne….

There is also a quality of fun and joie de vivre about John who is a horse lover and keen gambler. He loves these wines, their people and region and that shines through in his oeuvre.

I think it is a site for the trade or expert consumer because his notes are quite technical and he focuses on depth of content in his specialist area.

I drink a lot of the wines which feature on his site and I think he has an exquisite palate. He has an eloquent, descriptive and old fashioned style of writing. Take Clusel Roch’s Les Grandes Places from 2009 which he gives top marks to:

“(cask) dark red, black at the centre. Good ensemble on a substantial bouquet – baked fruits, a hint of dates from ripe, not overdone fruit. There are wafts of smoke in what is a full, but lucid nose – a mark of its quality. This is very well-constituted, has real good togetherness of its elements, a sealed-up quality. It builds as it goes, has finesse and strokeable black fruit that culminates in a licorice and an oak sprinkle. The tannins are fresh, live. Has the reserve of the northern zone, but ripe and good quality fruit wins the day. This can become complex, has pure qualities, is STGT. I just prefer the Viallière 2009. 2026-29. Bottling Aug 2011. Nov 2010”.

Here are my scores for John and drinkrhone.com:

Read on:  The Wine Critic's Critic: Jamie Goode: The Wine Industry's Anorak and Head Teacher.

The Wine Critic's Critic: James Suckling: The wine industry’s Bon Viveur. 87/100 points.

'I'd love to meet James one day. He looks like a bloke who just loves life. I bet he would be a great guest to invite to a dinner or drinks party. His site is a superb example of how to use social media and appeal to a wide range of consumers. He shows that knowledge alone won't make you popular - you need to know how to market your brand to support it, and he is damn good at this'.

An aficionado of Italian wines and cigars, James Suckling globetrots between exotic locations (London, Cuba, Tuscany, Hong Kong, New York, LA) seeking out the best tastings, smokes, parties and celebrities. He is a cross between a well-healed, personable bon viveur (Monte cristo and liquor in hand, discussing his favourite topics with amigos in a late night Cuban bar) and the Hollywood star Jack Nicholson at the height of his career (mane of hair, cool dude, charm, charisma, cigars and, above all, self confidence).

James has his critics. Some have called him pompous, self-promoting and a lazy taster. But this isn’t how I see James.

James may come across as phlegmatic and self-promoting to some, more style than substance, but don’t under estimate his seriousness, knowledge and ability as a wine connoisseur and communicator. I believe James is the greatest communicator of wine on the planet to the enthusiastic and novice consumer groups.

There is something quite addictive about his site. Maybe it is the combination of novelty, video and his easy, sometimes breezy style (hey man, how’s it goin’) which appeals to me. He is different and an antidote to the serious web sites of Allen Meadows and Jancis Robinson. Each to their own.

His web site is very slick and a stellar example of how to use new media (notably twitter and video) to convey his knowledge of and passion for wine in today’s world. He is definitely ‘new school’ and some in the wine industry will find his simple communication style, tasting approach and tasting notes uncomfortable, but he knows how to speak to his target audiences.

His site doesn’t have the depth of content of Allen Meadows and Jancis Robinson but his target audiences are different. His simple and pithy tasting notes suit some people and make his knowledge easily digestible. He is more entertainment than education, and this appeals to a very large segment of the market, even if it alienates the more serious end of the trade. He adopts a ‘less is more’ approach and it works. Here is an example of a tasting note:

PETROLO TOSCANA GALATRONA

COUNTRY
Italy

REGION
Tuscany

VARIETAL


VINTAGE
2011

SCORE
99

“This is a phenomenal pure merlot with blueberries, raspberries and hints of milk chocolate. Some nutmeg too. Full body with very fine yet chewy tannins and a long, intense finish. Reminds me of the amazing 1998. Best ever from here. Needs four or five years of bottle age to soften”.

He is innovative too, bringing vineyards, growers and events into your home through video, creating a platform for independent merchants through his wine challenges, creating his Lalique glass and using his own events (e.g. Great Wines of Italy and Divino Tuscany) to both market his business and showcase great wines.

He has started to franchise out some of the content creation to his partners (as Parker has done) and it remains to be seen whether they can live up to his standards (as with Parker’s site) and get people re-subscribing.

So efficient (i.e. short and sharp) and interesting (on the whole anyway) are his videos to watch, James' challenge will be to create enough content to keep up with demand. His site and business are clearly well funded.

Here are my scores for James and Jamessuckling.com:

Read on. The Wine Critic's Critic: John Livingstone-Learmonth: The wine industry’s Cricket captain

The Wine Critic's Critic: Burghound and Allen Meadows: The wine industry’s CFO, Head of Compliance and Audit. 83/100 points.

'I am sure Allen means it when he says he is passionate about Burgundy but I can’t help feeling that he sounds like an accountant who says he is passionate about numbers. He is clearly very knowledgeable about Burgundy in particular, but I find this site a bit boring. I wish he would liven it up and reveal a bit of love and soul for the subject matter. You can tell this site has been created by a former CFO'.

He is everything you would expect from a former CFO - fastidious, serious, conscientious, thorough and detailed. He prepares his notes and journals like he would the annual report and accounts for a Fortune 100 company, knowing that he will be held to account if there is a serious error. Like every good CFO, he clearly manages the business meticulously and maximizes all subscriber led (not advertiser led, I stress) revenue opportunities.

‘Fastidious’ is my first impression of Alan Meadows as I read the ‘Promise to you’ section on the first page of his site and the ‘statement of principles’ on the front of every quarterly journal which lay out his impeccably correct approach to tasting and scoring.

Meadows protects his business with all the zeal that you would expect from an American former CFO. There are rules, terms and conditions, legal definitions, licensing fees, threats if rules are violated, copyrights and warnings about what is strictly prohibited (web crawlers, spiders, robots) and what is expressly forbidden. Al Capone would have been intimidated.

I always need a drink, smoke and lie down after reading all this, followed by 10 minutes watching a video by James Suckling extoling the beauty of a Monte Cristo No 2. Only then can I relax.

In this world of piracy and copyright infringement, I empathise with his feelings of insecurity and fear that people will rip him off and use his copyright. But I do find it depressing. Has the world of wine been reduced to all this legalise? Has it just become another boring business run by accountants and lawyers rendering it soulless, technical and dull? I’ll just throw that out there to you. Maybe it is one for another posting. Perhaps I am just suffering from Pangloassian syndrome, a romantic at heart who loves an old fashioned handshake as the basis for a deal as practised by so many growers and importers.

However, in terms of content, burghound is a stellar example of the online specialist site. I doubt there is anyone in the world who knows the wines of Burgundy and more generally Pinot Noir (he covers California, Oregon and some champagnes and sparkling wines) as well as him.

It is packed full of information – a considerable database, tasting notes, how the wine was made in the year, quotes from the producer, a glossary of terms, special reports on multiple vintages of rare wines and a travel guide (extra cost unless 2 or 3 year subscription is taken out). He also produces a pdf which you can download and print. Q3 2013’s issue (no 51), just out, is nearly 200 pages long and it covers 193 producers.

He provides audio and video, information on speaking engagements and wines of the week. He also writes books and travel guides.

Its look, feel and the functionality all work very well. Whilst his area of focus is small (confined to burgundy, a few other pinot noir growing areas and Champagne) his coverage within that specialist area is first rate. He covers every nook and cranny of Burgundy.

It is a very impressive source of information in its specialist areas but more suitable for the trade and expert amateur looking for depth of content and tasting notes rather than consumers looking for general information and updates.

If I were to reproach him on anything, it would be his delivery, as seen in his video clips. His delivery is, well, like an auditor delivering the final audit report to the PLC Board – dry, soulless, wooden, dull. I do recognize that he addressing detailed, technical and serious subjects such as dry extract, green meanies (come again?) and premature oxidation but he is no Jamie Goode when discussing these. Allen could take some tips from Jamie on how to communicate technical subjects like a great teacher and from James Suckling on how to bond with the audience in video and bring some of these subjects to life.

Returning to my point about his passion, I can see he is genuinely committed to the cause. He is a serious on-site taster, committed to spending 5 months a year in Burgundy. Looking at his list of appointments, he must have a considerable appetite and energy for the cause; in April 2013, he spent 9 consecutive nights at tastings and dinners in Asia. He must have needed a serious detox afterwards.

I think Meadows is an outstanding taster and writer although some find his notes very repetitive. He uses evocative, accurate and clear language in his tasting notes and your mouth starts watering just reading them. He is also a tough marker so if he score highly, you really know the wine is good. Here is an example:

2011 Puligny-Montrachet “Les Folatières”: This is sufficiently ripe that the nose flirts with the exotic with its notes of tangerine, pear, white peach, acacia blossom and spice hints. There is flat out stunning intensity to the extract-rich medium weight flavors that seem to be directly extracted from liquid rock, in particular on the penetratingly saline-infused and forcefully explosive finish that seems to go on and on. This is textbook Folatières. 95/2021+.

I also like the way he identifies wines against other criteria such as ‘top value’, ‘drink now’, ‘sweet spot’ and ‘don’t miss’.

Here are my scores for Allen and Burghound:

Read on. The Wine Critic's Critic: My view on James Suckling.

The Wine Critic's Critic: Decanter and Andrew Jefford - The wine industry’s Professor of English. 86/100 points.

'I love re-reading the intro to Andrew's book, 'The New France'. It exudes genuine interest and passion, and reminds me of my own discovery of France and the French 30 years ago, and my continued love affair with the country. He is a great writer…..most of the time'.

Andrew is like your university professor – scholarly, reflective, personable. curious and wise. His emphasis is on quietly expanding the sum of wine knowledge rather than courting controversy and building his profile. He can write brilliantly but like many scholars, he can, very occasionally, veer into language which confuses rather than conveys. I can imagine him saying to himself: why use a simple phrase when an obscure one will do?

Andrew is a regular contributor to Decanter Magazine where he writes a weekly Monday blog as well as doing tastings and writing other articles notably on South of France (where he now lives) and South Australia (where he used to live). I write about both him and Decanter here, and score them as a combination.

I first came across Andrew Jefford when I read his book ‘The New France’ back in 2002. I thought it was outstanding. I didn’t agree with all his ratings (how could Trevallon only get 1 star?) but it did what the title promised. It was enlightening and revealed relatively unknown wine regions of France (Jura, Savoie and Corsica are examples) which are now in vogue. He also championed the small grower, the artisan who makes individual wines in the face of large corporates, and he wrote it at a time when New World wine was in its ascendancy. It was an innovative, reactionary piece of work which helped him win the 2002 Glenfiddich Award for Wine Writer of the Year.

Boy, Jefford can write. He is an excellent storyteller - rational, balanced, insightful and varied – and he brings to life the wines, places and characters involved. His prose is usually clipped and efficient, eliminating unnecessary words. His online style is generally well suited to all types of consumer groups because it is so varied, insightful and well written. There is always a juicy nugget of information or insight offered up by Jefford. He delivers most of his online information via the Decanter blog. His own site links through to his Decanter blog and twitter page.

The range subject matter he can analyse and digest is impressive. Just over the summer, he has covered a wide array of subjects: dépérissement, a maladie which affects only Syrah (July 22), useful tips to bloggers (July 29^th) and the downside for the wine market of electronic media (what he calls the information tsunami), Austria’s Danubian wine regions by air (Aug 5^th), the risk of contamination in food and wine (Aug 12^th) and a top wine tip (Aug 19^th).

But my (rather churlish) observation is that Andrew can occasionally write obscurely which perhaps belies his literary yearning and love of poetry (he uses his twitter account to write only Haiku, a short form of Japanese poetry). I think this can upset the fluency of his writing and obscure its meaning. Why bother using this technique? After all, this is fermented grape juice he is writing about.

Here are some recent examples of words and phrases he has used:

·       Wines which are fresh, limpid and juicy, their redcurrant and raspberry fruits shawled, …, in feathery tannins” (FT, Aug 10/11). Maybe it is the use of an avian adjective to describe wine which I don’t like, but what’s wrong with using the word light or fine which would be more comprehensible?

·       The Austrian wine, Gruner Vetliner, has few “allusive pegs, but their texture, pith and sappiness gives them unparalled food-friendliness…..” (FT, 17/18). Allusive pegs? I understand from my limited experience how elusive pegs can be when you want to hang the washing out, but allusive? And sappiness? Come again?

·    His Decanter blog on 19^th August mentioned all the following words: ‘least articulate wine’, ‘allusive triggers’, ‘sappy’, ‘adjectivally arid’.  “Qu’est-ce que ca veut dire?”, I can hear Eloi Durrbach (Trevallon) Alain Vaillé (La Grange des Peres) and Thierry Allemand (Cornas) asking themselves. I too have no idea.

Maybe he feels the need to adorn his clipped writing prose with obscure words to add style and colour? Please Andrew, if you need to be obscure, then be obscure clearly!

The words ‘sap’ and ‘sappiness’ (or ‘seve’ and ‘seveux’ in French) for describing wine intrigue me. I have seen these words used in both French and English tasting notes. I think they are odd and clumsy figures of speech.

They appear to be words which have crept into the French language quite recently to describe wines, but I have no idea where they came from. I lived in France for years from 1986, I have a first class degree in French, I played rugby there for years (including Chateauneuf-du-Pape where the growers would serve us wine, not lucozade, after training) and I have spent years mixing with growers and tasting their wines. But I had never heard it used, until recently, to describe a wine.

Do the grapes themselves really have sap? In fact, when critics say sappy (or seveux), I think they mean succulent or juicy or concentrated. So why not just say that? And since when did we think of sap as any of these things (think of a great Oak or Plane tree and is juicy what springs to mind?). It is one of the more bizarre examples of our languages’ evolution. Or maybe it is the circle of wine critics which have contorted its meaning? After all, why use a simple word when a more obscure one will do?

The word for sap, seve, can also be used in a slightly different context: “la seve nerveuse” (literal meaning: “nervous sap”). I asked Eloi Durbach of Domaine de Trevallon if he knew what this meant and he guessed that it meant trop d’acide (too much acid) or ‘tightly wound’ (another vinous metaphor). You see, even the great and the good don’t really know. Everything in wine, like love and art, is subjective and a matter of personal judgment.

Sap and sappiness are neologisms  - newly coined words which may be in the process of entering common use not yet accepted into mainstream language.

I just don’t like the terms. For me, sap is found in trees and global companies where it is a clunky IT system invented by Germans. It isn’t found in grapes.

Here are my scores for Andrew and Decanter:

Read on. The Wine Critic's Critic: Allen Meadows - The wine industry's CFO and Head of Compliance and Audit