BLIND Tasting vs. JANCIS Robinson - The Clash of the Masters of Wine?

this is the blind wine tasting battle you've all been waiting for my team has selected four different wines rated 17 18 19 and a perfect 20 points but one of the most important wine experts in the world the one and only chances Robinson I'm going to taste these ones blind to find out whether I would rate them the same let's go [Music] it is difficult to list all of Janice Robinson's achievements because there are so many of them the most important ones are probably that she founded her own website and platform janstromson.com in 2000 and sold it two years ago she has written or co-authored many of the most widely read books on wine like the Oxford companion to Wine the word atlas of wine and wine grapes I read her books quite frequently and I find them very insightful especially in the Oxford companion which is also available through her website in 1984 she was the first non-wine trade person to become a master of wine and she has received many awards for her work including the Obe by Queen Elizabeth she describes herself as a wine writer not a wine critic and she seems to have a love-hate relationship with wine scores on her website she writes that although we are not very comfortable with scoring wines because it is so difficult to encapsulate a one's qualities in a single score we do realize how useful scores are for those reading and buying and selling in a hurry I don't use chances scores very much for a few reasons first of all she uses the 20 point scale which is becoming less and less relevant and I find it difficult to convert her scores into a 100 point system score the descriptions they use on their website in order to explain the scores don't necessarily make it much easier for me to understand the scale starts at 12 points actually for faulty or unbalanced wine 13 points is borderline 40 or unbalanced 14 is deadly dull 15 is average a perfectly nice drink with no Faults but not much excitement 16 is distinguished 17 is superior 18 is A Cut Above Superior 19 is a Humdinger and 20 is truly exceptional it is funny that everything below 15 points is actually deadly dull or faulty which kind of means that the score only really starts at 15 points on top of that I don't really understand the differences between distinguished Superior and A Cut Above Superior hamdinga is a word that I have actually never used and I've never heard anyone describe a wine as a Humdinger so I think it would be useful if they would explain the scores in a little bit more detail what is also worth mentioning is that their 20-point scale is not equally applied across all wines chances writes that when reviewing for example New Zealand Pinot noirs we score the wines in the context of New World Pinot Noir rather than on the same scale as we would Mark red burgundies so with a score of 18.5 a 2003 quartz Reef Pinot Noir is not equal to a 2003 DRC and never will be I find that approach strange as you don't really know what the category is your wine was rated in say it does a German Pinot Noir get rated on the same scale as red burgundy as New Zealand Pinot or on an entirely different scale altogether on top of that that kind of suggests that New Zealand Pinot can't compete with red burgundy which is a little bit demeaning I think the tasting notes are sometimes very detailed but sometimes also very short and don't contain a lot of information and 1982 Mouton Rothschild that received a perfect 20 point score got this tasting note sweet round and absolutely gorgeous at this point with a perfect level of spiciness just lovely now I also run the numbers on team janssus's ratings and she has rated fewer ones than robotpaka.com or venus.com but a few more than jamessackling.com what I found surprising is that her scores are much more concentrated around a very narrow part of the scale 75 percent of all wines are rated between 15.5 and 17 points although it's a bit difficult to compare her scores against the 100 point system scores as they are two different systems that's interesting to me though as the most important points of criticism when it comes to the 100 point system uh that you can only use half of the scale and that the scores are concentrated around the 90 point mark But on both points the 20 point system actually seems to be worse when it comes to giving out the perfect 20 point score chances seems to be as reluctant as the people over at winners 194 wines have received 20 points one of them I've tasted in the song called one video the Keller patentar and another one is sitting here right in front of me so let's taste the wines I don't know what they are but I'm going to try to find out which one is which as they were scored in the 20-point system I'm also going to try to score them in the 20-point system but I will also give my 100 point system score on top of that got it let's go so let's start off with one number one a white so the wine is pretty pale in color it well shows quite a lot of apple and spice herbaceous notes so it's quite complex beautiful not super aromatic but it feels like it's well a variety with quite a bit of Aroma on the palette it's textured it's grippy it's fresh there's lots of acidity there as well so there's a beautiful balance to me this seems to be a really good Riesling and a very very good Riesling I think this tastes very German to me I would say this might be from Ryan hessen Ryan go naher that part of Germany and it's just delicious so this is clearly A Cut Above Superior I think it's probably even better than that maybe it's a humdinger um are truly exceptional I actually think this is truly exceptional I wouldn't rate it 100 points though so in the 100 point system I would rate this 97 points so if I convert that using the conversion table it would mean that it's probably a 19.1 so this is a Humdinger and that's the first time I've ever used that word to describe a wine so let's move on to one number whoa why number two before I break any glasses I've already broken a cup today so well maybe maybe I also break a glass let's see oh that's pretty golden so this is pretty golden in color which might suggest it's the sweet wine or an aged wine I actually smelled that wine quite a bit while the lineup was standing in front of me while I was talking in the beginning it just yeah it's quite it's not super aromatic but there's an intensity there quite a lot of profoundness which already suggests that this might be a delicious wine this is quite extraordinary it's kind of rich and concentrated and deep it smells like the wine I spent quite a lot of time on lease because it has this creamy bread e character to it and the golden color is also consistent with that I think it smells of pears ripe Apple a little bit of hay and it's it's fascinating on the palette it has this great texture and richness the alcohol is present so I think there's quite a bit of alcohol there like 13 and a half maybe 14 percent but there's also grip and freshness so it's it's a delicious wine for me it actually tastes a little bit like a Shanna even though this style doesn't really point to Shana for me it could also be a shadow name but I actually think this could be a Guna fettlina a high-end funa fettlina to be honest the the shape of the bottle also points in that direction so I'm going to say this is probably a Corona fettlina from the vachao region in Austria very high-end one maybe like a single Vineyard type kuna velina it has spent quite a lot of time on the lease and it's absolutely delicious so I would actually rate this a little bit higher than the previous wine because it's more drinkable now I think the previous one is probably a little bit young so I'm going to rate this 98 points and well that might mean that this is truly exceptional I I definitely think this is truly exceptional is it perfect that's open for debate but but it's it's delicious so that kind of suggests that it's going to go downhill from here but well let's keep an open mind and we're moving on to Red apparently so this is quite a delicious little red wine it is quite dark in color super concentrated black berry spice Aromas and on the palette there's quite a lot of richness grip quite a bit of alcohol as well so for me this tastes a little bit like a kuturon um one with maybe less and more Sora content and it's it's delicious it's juicy rich really good so I would actually rate this 90 points I think it's it's a delicious wine even though I don't think it's like anything expensive but it's really fun and I think with a piece of meat this would be a delicious partner so 90 points what's that in on the 20 point scale is it for is it distinguished Well it can't be distinguished it has to be Superior or A Cut Above Superior so I'm I'm going to go for Superior here Superior 17 points and now mindful which is another red so this is also quite dark in color but it has this pepperiness and this meaty pepperiness which well for me actually points to Surah there's a little bit of Oak as well I think quite a lot of blueberry character this could also be like Cabernet or something else but the pepperiness the raw tendon the flavor compound that actually gives Surah this peppery flavor it's very present on the past it's grippy juicy quite fresh pointing away from like really hot areas like well Barossa or McLaren for example in Australia because of this fresh and vibrant acidity so this could be from lots of different places it could be from South Africa it could be from Chile it could be from New Zealand it could also be from the old world I don't think this feels very much like Northern Rhone Surah so it's really it's really clean and precise so well maybe South African surahs are a little bit more funky and wild so I would actually say this is from Chile uh really well made Surah but who knows it could also be New Zealand for sure but the more important question is what is it is it Superior A Cut Above Superior a humblinger well in the context of the four wines I've tasted I would actually say it's better than the previous red but it's not as good as the two whites so I'm going to rate this 18 points A Cut Above Superior I would give this 90 92 points in the 100 point system so now on to the big reveal I've set up the wines in order of preference from my favorite to the least good wine and let's open them up so I thought why number two was the exceptional truly exceptional one even though both of them were actually really delicious for me this was a little bit more exciting maybe because of the additional aging I thought this was a kuna vetlina from Baja so let's find out so it was a gruna fatlina from the vachao region in Austria and it's the 2010 Stockwell tours maract from praga a delicious one but it only received 19 points from Genesis Robinson so this is actually the Humdinger and not the truly exceptional one let me peel that back a little bit it's 13.5 percent of alcohol I'd imagine it's more towards the 14 but great one so that means I was wrong here this isn't the Humdinger this was the hamdinga this is the truly exceptional wine well let's find out maybe it's not even that it's maybe it's just a cut above Superior let's let's see but I'm pretty sure that this wasn't very highly rated I see the GG here which means causative X which puts me into Germany and it's one of the top producers in the naha region it received 20 points from genesisrovinson.com and it's the felsenberg Riesling nevertheless delicious one so these two wines are just outstanding if you ever want really great examples of their grape variety and region of origin and those two wines are well two ones to go for but now let's move on to the next one number four I thought this was The Cut Above Superior and I thought it was a Surah from Chile so let's let's have a look there's a screw cap here so this kind of points to the new world it doesn't necessarily mean it's new world but it is a cut above Superior this is the 18.1 here check it out and it's blank canvas gimlet gravels element syrup I was close this is from New Zealand from the gimlet gravels region which is one of the top table hours for Surah and some other red varietals in New Zealand but well it's not chili so yeah but I got the score right this time this would mean that this is the Superior one one number three I said it's called your own with more Surah than ganache but well let's see it is the superior one no the yeah the superior one at 17 points and it's fine what Anna to course Vineyards well it's mavuri from Greece so uh yeah I wouldn't have I wouldn't have guessed that but it's a really cool one you should check that out by the way all of those wines are linked up in the description below the video so you'll find the name and a link to one Searcher where you can look those ones up and find them in your Market wherever you are based to be honest out of all the blind tasting battles this was maybe the hardest for me because of the 20 point scale but it was also the most rewarding because all four ones were really delicious really good examples of that type well I don't know that much about my fruity but but yeah it was a delicious wine my favorites you know it already were those two wines even though I think the praga actually showed a little better because of the 13 years of Aging so this is right in its drinking window whereas this is just a little young still it's a 2020 so it's really a baby so thank you for watching I hope you enjoyed this video if you did then please like it down here subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so already my question of the day is do you use chances Robinson scores let me know down below I hope I see you guys again very soon until then stay thirsty [Music]

Channel: Konstantin Baum - Master of Wine

Views: 56,899

Keywords: Konstantin Baum, Constantine Baum, Constantin Baum, Constantin, Konstantin Baum Master of Wine, wine basics, Master of Wine, Master Sommelier, Sommelier, Tasting, Blind Tasting, Red Wine, White Wine, Bon Appetite, Andre Mack, Wineking, Expensive Wine, Cheap Wine, Tasting Wine, Blind tasting, Jay Wineking, Wine King Jay, Riesling, Jancis Robinson, 20 Point System, Wine Critic

Id: hMBJYOdrgK4

Length: 17min 5sec (1025 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2023