Comments on: The Bottle Shock Effect http://wineeconomist.com/2008/09/30/the-bottle-shock-effect/ Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:14:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: David Boyer http://wineeconomist.com/2008/09/30/the-bottle-shock-effect/#comment-192 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:47:32 +0000 http://wineeconomist.wordpress.com/?p=255#comment-192 There can be no question about the importance of this event to the California wine trade. But honestly I can’t say the ’70s is considered even an okay decade for French wine. Comparing Stag’s Leap with a 1970 Mouton or Haut Brion, one can see how it would be possible for this California Cabernet Sauvignon to fare better in a blind tasting. In 1986 Spectator gave the Mouton a score of 85 and in 1991, it scored 84. Apparently by 1993, it had improved with age to score a 96. In 1986 Haut Brion was given an unbelievable 67 points, recovering by 1997 to score 90 points. Critic’s scores are certainly also open to criticism and scrutiny but really how far off could they have been? These revered Bordeaux were not good wines to begin with and more often back then, it was a struggle to produce high quality wines, especially in decades like the ’70s.

As much as I appreciate CA wines, let’s not delude ourselves with the results of this monumental event. A good vintage 1st Growth Bordeaux will blow away anything in its genre I can think of. It is the epicenter of great wine, which is why California and other great wine regions work so hard to emulate it.

The movie was typical Hollywood fluff, trying to pick up the Sideways demo segment. Not only were there gross inaccuracies, but it tried to be too many things to too many people, and ended up not doing any of it well. Hollywood would probably be offended if winemakers tried to make a feature film. Conversely, filmmakers generally should stay out of the wine world.

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