Wine tasters are a polite bunch on the whole, damning with faint praise or averting their gaze in really offensive cases like Queen Victoria when confronted by a lesbian. In fact the only serious wino I can think of who actively publicizes a “bad” wine is Gaetano Manti, publisher of the US edition of Il Mio Vino, which features a column “the big let down”. For example the 2001 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2001 from Fuligni was recently damned by IMV as having “no apparent defects, but it is very unbalanced. And fails to live up to its price-tag.”

Essentially the same criticism leveled at Dennis Kerrison’s Minotaur 2007 from Doolhof Estate in Wellington in a curious tasting note, written recently by an associate editor of a large circulation sighted wine guide. The confused posting throws question marks at the rating accorded to the wine in the 2010 edition of the guide and by implication at the (named) taster who supplied it. That the blogger is also wife of the real editor of the guide makes it all even more messy and looks suspiciously like washing dirty laundry in public. Which if the case, is grossly unfair to Dennis and his brand.

Doolhof GM Daan Coetzee and Dennis Kerrison

While I agree that a bad restaurant review is often much more fun to read than a rave, citing AA Gill as proof of this particular pudding, when it comes to assessing wine and publishing negative comments, only blind assessments make any ethical sense. Especially when the whole blog posting is about a single wine, as it is in this case. Otherwise it looks like you’re grinding an axe, settling a score or telling somebody off.

I tasted the Minotaur 2007 (sighted) recently and enjoyed it. In fact I would say it has features which would appeal to many people. Which is surely the whole point of a guide: to highlight wines most people might like and not just those that suit your own parochial palate. Something the Minotaur 2007 most certainly does: silver at the recent International Wine & Spirit Competition in Hong Kong, gold at the Michelangelo International Wine Awards and double gold at Veritas, the competition with most credibility among consumers according to several surveys. Blind tastings all.

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