Proprietor’s Note: Loyal vinapediacs will have noticed that we stirred a bit of controversy when we posted The Oenophliac, J.M. Garcia III’s, piece, 100-Pointless, on the over-oaked and over-extracted wines that make it into the 95-plus range. One veteran wine journalist from the Bay Area was so upset that he flamed us repeatedly, though he wouldn’t stand behind his words and state them publicly. Still, we answered this fellow’s charges and pointed out his errors, here. When Ted Talley, proprietor of Terra Firma Wines Company, also in the Bay Area, got wind of the controversy, he got riled, too. After reading the orginal piece and our response, he had this to say to our detractor.

Dear Sir,

The point is a question of probability — the highly oaked, overextracted wine is more likely to get fat points. There are very few areas of the world where both of these conditions exist in traditional winemaking. It’s the parvenues of the wine world that have made this the current fashion — and it’s just that, a fashion. Balance always wins, though it doesn’t always get the fat points.

There are very few wines that come in at above 15 percent that can stay balanced. Chateauneuf du Pape, Amarone, Sagrantino come to mind. But the list kind of stops there. And, back in the day (say more than fifteen or twenty years ago), these wines didn’t suffer new oak. Oak is a spice, not an ingredient. Too much is too much.

The problem is that wine is expensive and wrapped in ego. One doesn’t want to look like an idiot, so people gravitate towards the 94-plus point wines, and then that over-oaked, over-extracted sytle becomes the norm for what “good” wine is.

If it didn’t cost $80/btl for a good Village Burgundy from a good producer, you could go out and buy several bottles on a whim and try them and see what you like. But unless you have a fat wallet to empty out at your local wine merchant, it’s a minefield of labels out there and the wine that has sweetness (oak & alcohol & residual sugar) will be appealling and “good” at first sip. But can you drink the whole bottle over the evening and find something different in each sip? Does it change and unfold and reveal different aspects of itself? Or is the last glass the same as the first?

This is what I find to be the case with these fancy Brave New World (and here I include lots of wines from the Old World) wines. Great wine (not necessarily high-scoring wine, eg, “off” vintages of Rayas, Ferrando Carema, etc) reveals something new every time you go back to it.

Sincerely,

Ted Talley,
Proprietor,
Terra Firma Wine Company