Could we criticize critics???

On the subject of flames, trolls, etc, let’s put it this way: Mr. Barrera has a rare gift... I still recall an episode in which I posted a comment about a 2003 Do Ferreiro Albariño. I considered that effort vastly inferior to the lovely, sharply-focused, intensely mineral 2002. I mentioned I detected a not-unpleasant, yet somewhat obtrusive element reminiscent of urine (an aroma of urea often being characteristic in certain overripe white wines). The man flew off the handle, claiming I had not only insulted Galicia, but htat I was an enemy of the entirety of Spain.

Just things that go on in this wonderful web...

On Parker’s ";no bad reviews"; policy: I believe it casts a shadow on the rest of his reviews. My grandfather was a constant utterer of the maxim ";If you have nothing positive to say, say nothing";. I, for my part, believe that criticism (even the harshest) can be constructive given the right context and the right wording. If one is a reviewer of a category of consumer products and only chooses to present the ";good"; examples to the public, without giving fair warning about unsatisfactory instances, one runs the risk of eleciting suspicion that one is merely a marketing tool. Every wine should get a shot at being reviewed in print. And every wine should accept the likelihood of getting a slapping if it’s not up to snuff.

I also agree on the matter of many people’s knee-jerk reactions to Parker and Parker’s organization (and to the Wine Spectator and other opinion-makers). This agreement is especially important because in the past I have been guilty of such reactions, stupidly enough. I dismissed some things without looking at them as deeply as I should have. It’s something of which I’m not proud. Now, I try to examine much more thoroughly before uttering a judgment that smacks even remotely of finality. And, like I said, even though one may not share many tastes with someone, there’s a chance that if one look’s hard enough, one will find common ground.

On your question about where the great artisanal wines from Spain may have been 20 years ago: Well, definitions of artisanal have evolved over the past twenty years. I will agree that now there are a great many wines being made in Spain htat are perfectly correct iwthin a certain idiom. I would attribute ";greatness"; to none, though. The reason for this is that th vast majority of producers that hve merged in various regions of Spain over the past 20 years are still not proven quantities. Too many of them have been doing on-the-job training at the expense of the consumer. And the wines, let’s face it, don’t have a real track record to speak of.

But twenty years ago you had the great houses of Rioja making some truly inspired wine (tried ’85 La Rioja alta ’890’ lately? Or the fantastic Continos of the early ’80s? Or the truly magnificent Imperial ’81? The list is long; regardless of the horrid way in which some ";authorities"; have misled the public, not everyone was making dirty, ansty, :Carrilero"; Riojas twenty years ago). Ditto for the likes fo Chivite in Navarra. And there were producers doing some healthy things in Penedès (Jean Leon comes to mind, also Barbier and Torres). In Toro you hd (and still have) the Fariña, making wines that are very true and charming in their own way. RIbera del Duero had, apart from Vega Sicilia, the first very fine commercial efforts of Alejandro Fernández and Teófilo Reyes at Pesquera. True, they were the prpulsors of the ";new wave"; in the Duero, but they were, in fact, making very fine wine in the early eighties. And hey, the father of Verema’s own Laureano Serres was making some fantastic ";rancios"; around Terra Alta, let’s not forget. His 1975 one from Garnacha is da bomb...:-)

I do this quick count of producers (there were many more who were doing things very properly in the ’70s and ’80s) because