Many of the choices that we make in life are influenced by critics. These loved and loathed experts tell us which London restaurant is now serving the best Anjou pigeon, why you just have to see the minimalist exhibition at the MoMA, whether it is worth catching Amy at the cinema…
However, would you choose to go to a movie that was recommended by a critic who spends most of his day watching music videos and reality TV and has not yet seen the masterworks of Fellini, Truffaut, or Tarkovsky? Moreover, one who has also never seen the performances by Robert de Niro as Taxi Driver, Holly Hunter in The Piano, or Chaplin in Modern Times.
On the other hand, perhaps you would take your partner out for a birthday celebration at a restaurant recommended by a critic who has spent his time in fast food joints and eating ready-made meals, but has not experienced the atmosphere of the French Laundry, El Bulli, or perhaps the Fat Duck. Or perhaps who has never sampled the magical creations of Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse, or Wolfgang Puck.
Probably not.
To make a worthwhile, credible judgment, the critic at least needs to know what he is judging and possess extensive knowledge of the subject.
Nevertheless, most of us follow the advice of those wine critics who mainly spend their time trying out cheap, nondescript wine and young, raw bottlings. Many such critics have never tasted the perfection of a 1947 Cheval Blanc, savoured the sheer elegance of a 1928 vintage Krug champagne, or experienced the sublime balance of a 1962 Vega Sicilia. Or perhaps who have never tried the best vintages of Jean-Claude Berrouet, Henri Jayer, or André Noblet. What if he or she has never tasted the world's best wines when they are at their peak? What then is his or her evaluation based on?
Wine critics often seem to try to hide their lack of expertise and experience behind glib remarks about the product, often at its own expense. The judgment made is simply the critic's opinion, and has little to do with the product's real essence.
Wine culture these days is for the mass market, the same way that cinema is. Efficient production machinery churns out products for the general public from the same old and often regrettably indifferent sources. Amid all of this greyness and in this atmosphere of paucity, the wine critic’s role is to act as a ‘quality’ filter between wines and consumers. The critic analyses the wine, gives their opinion, and thus influences their thirsty – and very busy – clients.
Although critics quite rightly think that they should cater to their readers, their reviews more often than not affect those who make a living from wine. A negative, inexpert, or inappropriate judgment can have repercussions, for example, for the sales of an individual wine, its appearance in shops, investment in its advertising, and the unwillingness of a merchant to bring a new vintage onto the market or of a restaurant to put it on the wine list. On the other hand, one should not make too much of this, as a positive criticism cannot rescue a wine either, if it simply does not deserve the praise and high scores that it receives.
The wine critic's most important tool is experience. Without extensive personal experience, it is impossible to rate a wine or explain the way that it relates to other wines. A good wine critic examines the wine from different angles and considers its qualities and significance in its broader cultural context and against its background as a product. The wine engrosses them, but at the same time, they keep a distance from it. They are also required to distinguish between the best and mediocre, and to take the trouble to provide a detailed explanation of their opinion of the wine. Such an expert discovers each wine's personality and characteristics and acknowledges its uniqueness. Furthermore, more than anything else, a good wine critic is humble and all too aware of the power that they wield.
If your wine critic matches these criteria, you can go off to the wine store and confidently serve what it has to offer to your friends at dinner. As long as you remember that the most important critic is to be found within yourself. That one is always right, even when your very own official wine critic thinks otherwise.