Competing or Cheating?
This news story is floating around today. The quick version is that a New Zealand wine submitted for competition (and it won accolades) was found to be different than the wine available for public consumption. This was proven through lab tests, though two audits showed the incident to be unintentional.
So now everyone is wondering what this means about the possibilities of wineries cheating to get higher scores, medals, etc. Others (such as Harvey Steiman over at Wine Spectator online) have pointed out that with so many people writing about wine in so many venues, the chance of getting away with such an act is slim to none.
Plus, wouldn’t the wineries really be cheating themselves by doing that? If they put forth a better product to be judged only to have consumers buy it and question the quality… Word of mouth is a very powerful tool. And as I just mentioned, more and more people are sharing their opinions. More and more readers are paying attention.
I hope this was a one-time mistake that we can learn from and move on. Perhaps, along the way, questioning the importance of ratings and medals as the best way to choose a wine.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:25 am
[...] Word of the Year vs. Wine of the Year December 10th, 2006 by Farley My last post addressed duplicity in winemaking, or at least in the submission of wine to contests or for ratings. Funny, then, to discover that the word of the year is truthiness. Coined by a favorite of mine, Stephen Colbert, he encourages people to think with their guts and not with their heads. He referenced this idea at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where he admired W. for his ability to do so, (as they were kindred spirits). Then again, what did they expect– asking him to be the keynote speaker? [...]