Are Big Wine Brands good or bad? The Blind Tasting.
Is there beauty behind the Big Brands?
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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: Nude Glass Stem Zero Delicate White Wine Glass
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
Black Tower Fruity White, Europe
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/black+tower+fruity+white+europe?referring_site=KSB
Barefoot Merlot, California, USA
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/bare+foot+merlot+california+usa?referring_site=KSB
2021 Bodegas Campo Viejo Tempranillo, Rioja DOCa, Spain
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/campo+viejo+tempranillo+doca+rioja+spain/2021?referring_site=KSB
2020 Baron Philippe de Rothschild Mouton Cadet, Bordeaux, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/baron+philip+de+rothschild+mouton+cadet+bordeaux+france/2020?referring_site=KSB
2022 Yellow Tail Shiraz, South Eastern Australia
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/yellow+tail+sra+south+eastern+australia/2022?referring_site=KSB
2021 Ruffino Chianti DOCG, Tuscany, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/ruffino+docg+chianti+tuscany+italy/2021?referring_site=KSB
2021 Casillero del Diablo Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Valley, Chile
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/casillero+diablo+rsrv+cab+sauv+central+valley+chile/2021?referring_site=KSB
The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.
The wine world is a colorful place. There are tens of thousands of producers making wine all around the globe. Wine media often focuses on the small artisanal producers who get their hands dirty in the vineyards and meticulously watch every barrel during fermentation.
But the truth is that a large chunk of the wine that is being consumed around the world comes out of the cellars of a few dozen wineries.
Some of them are family businesses, some are publicly traded. What unites them is that they are producing oceans of wine and selling them to Millions of thirsty consumers in all markets from Chile to China. Us wine nerds often look down on the big wine brands and call their products industrial wine as opposed to the more “natural” products coming out of small estates.
I don’t like that distinction as no wine is natural and no wine is industrial: All wine is made from nature’s fruit by men and is, therefore, a cultural product – an AGRIcultural product
Bigger producers are often more risk-averse and therefore more prepared to use methods and additions that stabilize the wine – trying to avoid oxidation, refermentation, and precipitation of solids.
That is not necessarily bad. It might strip a wine of a bit of personality, but it also increases the chance of you being able to enjoy an unspoiled bottle.
Also: The big brand might not usually represent the pinnacle of wine quality but they need to be good enough so that wine newbies are not repelled by that very important first taste.
I therefore asked Leon to buy some of the most widely available wine brands for me to taste and rate blind.
He selected wines for this blind tasting from something called the Wine Intelligence Global Wine Brand Power Index – which ranks the most well-known and respected big brands.
These should be wines that every one of you can find and buy in your markets, well as long as you are not living in North Korea or Iran that is. So let’s find out whether there is beauty behind the big brands!