I taste a lot of wines and only a few of these end up on this blog. This filtering process means that you will tend only to see positive reviews here. Some people have commented on this.<\/p>\n
Would you like to see more negative reviews of wines I didn\u2019t like? This might make for more balanced reading, and a greater range of scores. I\u2019m conscious that my scoring is in quite a narrow band, and one reason for this is that I don\u2019t usually write up dull or poor wines.<\/p>\n
The rationale behind my policy of focusing on the positive is as follows. I think that it\u2019s only fair that the good wines get the limited slots that exist on the blog: they\u2019ve earned their place. But perhaps more significantly, a false positive is better than a false negative.<\/p>\n
Let me explain. I think I\u2019m a reasonably good wine critic. But I\u2019m not perfect, and I make mistakes. A false positive is undesirable, but it is less of a problem than a false negative.<\/p>\n
If I err on the side of criticizing a wine, I could be causing a miscarriage of justice. My mistake could create problems for a producer, and I\u2019d rather see an undeserving producer sell a few extra bottles than dent the sales of someone who has actually made a great wine, only for me to make a mistake and knock it down.<\/p>\n
It can be entertaining to see a critic lay into a wine. And there are a lot of bad wines out there that deserve criticism. The risk of slamming an innocent wine with a bad review, however, is usually too high for me to want to do it on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also an extra factor here, which involves market segmentation. There\u2019s a lot of crap wine out there that\u2019s actually good quality. Let me explain this contradiction. Quality is best defined as fitness for purpose. A crap wine that is dull, inoffensive and has no personality, might be a good quality wine in certain segments of the market. If you can list a clean, fault free, but dull Pinot Grigio at under \u00a34 then you\u2019ll have some happy customers.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the point of me laying into wines like these on my blog if they\u2019re actually perfectly suited to their market, and their target market isn\u2019t reading my blog?<\/p>\n
Sometimes I think people criticize from a point of insecurity. Criticizing makes them feel more powerful, and better about themselves.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t it better all round if I\u2019m just enthusiastic about the wines I like, and steer you towards those?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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