Last night I had dinner with a group of friends and one of my dining companions is a tasting room manager at a winery. Anne has at least 10 years of tasting room experience and the majority of those years in the winery environment have been in management.
One of the various topics at our dining table turned into the point system. Now mind you, we didn't spend a lot of time on the discussion, because the table of four (and we are all in the wine industry) are already in agreement that the present point system is flawed. Out of the blue I asked Anne, "So in theory, tell me about the 89 points that your bottle of wine received." To which she replied - -
"The kiss of death."
One of the various topics at our dining table turned into the point system. Now mind you, we didn't spend a lot of time on the discussion, because the table of four (and we are all in the wine industry) are already in agreement that the present point system is flawed. Out of the blue I asked Anne, "So in theory, tell me about the 89 points that your bottle of wine received." To which she replied - -
"The kiss of death." 
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3 comments:
Did you tell her about The 89 Project? Did you ask her thoughts on it? Even more important, perhaps, did you suggest she burn a case or two sending it out to 89 Project participants, and maybe getting a whole bunch of second opinions that would be seen by thousands? I have been wondering when we might do a group project like that. If she is even slightly interested hood her up with me and I can coordinate it.
I'm in! I'm in!
Oh, wait... would that make me a naive unethical writer?
In that case I'm *definitely* in!
I did tell her about the 89 Project, but like I pointed out in the blog, we didn't spend a lot of time on the discussion. Also, as I pointed out in the blog, I asked this question in theory. What I do know is that the current winery she is employed for does not subscribe to points and will not send their wines to WS or WE. I've even heard in the winemaker's own voice, they will not play the "game." And frankly, this winery doesn't need to. Their wines are sell-outs and what press they do receive is always very positive.
Again, when I asked the question it was in theory and I believe she was referring to a previous winery she use to be employed with several years ago.
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