ADVERTISING: Advertorial — Is it fact or opinion?

I have frequently said the best way to get six different opinions about any wine is to ask two wine professionals what they think about any wine. Wine is a very opinion driven product and we all should and do have an opinion about wine. The most important one for any of us is, do we like the wine or not, but that is just the beginning of a long list of thoughts we all have about a bottle. Whenever you hear any one of us as wine professionals talk about wine though, it is important to distinguish between fact and opinion.

When it comes to opinion it is best to work with a wine professional who has a similar palate to our own. After all, if our palate picks up certain flavors and aromas, and appreciates a certain set of them, the opinion of one with similar tastes will resonate more, and recommendations will be more productive. There are facts about wine too, and those can’t be disputed, they are simply the truth.

For instance, when a wine is labeled with “White Burgundy,” we know that it is most likely Chardonnay. Factually speaking it is a 98% chance it is Chardonnay, there are 2% of the white wine vineyards grown in Burgundy that are planted to Aligoté another white Burgundian varietal. Another fact of Burgundy is that the Chardonnay from the Chablis region of Burgundy never sees an oak barrel during fermentation or ageing, or any other oak influence. It is what they have done there for centuries.

The Napa Valley is one of the most respected and sought after growing and wine making regions on the planet. I love so many of the wines from Napa and consider it near the top of the heap for wine regions, especially if we are just including domestic US wines. This is clearly my opinion, you could find a dozen wine professionals who would strongly disagree with me, and that is as it should be. A robust debate about any aspect of wine opinion makes for a stronger industry.

When these things tend to heat up is when you have competing wine regions, wineries that make a similar varietal line-up, and other competitive scenarios where someone tries to out volume the others to make their opinion become the fact. When this happens, it doesn’t often end well for any of the competitors vying for a segment of the market. We can find many examples of this opinion-based argument, Washington wines are overpriced, Napa Valley wines are over oaked, and on and on….

I have long said and still prefer California grown and made Pinot Noir over Oregon produced Pinot. It is just a product of my taste and the time I spent working at Balletto Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. I learned a lot about the varietal during my short time at Balletto both from John Balletto and the winemaker there at the time Dan Cederquist, it is what framed much of my opinion on Pinot Noir.

Now I know there are other wine folks who will argue long and hard that Oregon is a better region for growing and making great Pinot Noir. It's their feeling and they are entitled to that. I know many of the arguments, it is closer to all the terroir conditions of Burgundy, the “mother ship” if you will of Pinot Noir, the latitude is closer to Burgundy than many of the vineyards of California. I understand them all but for me the Russian River Valley, Carneros, areas of the Central Coast and parts of Santa Barbara make far better Pinot Noir. I can’t make the argument from a factual point but I sure can express the opinion with conviction.

For wine consumers the most important part of all this is to be able to distinguish the fact from the opinion. Knowing the difference allows consumers to better assess all of the information about wine. It is vital for us as an industry to accurately keep the facts of a wine to just that, the facts. All of you as wine consumers will still seek out our opinions and base many of your buying decisions on what we think about a wine and the knowledge we have of your palate to make a recommendation. We will always make it clear to all of you on every visit what we feel about a wine, and give you the unvarnished facts we have on the wine that will help you with your decisions. As you open your next bottle though, never lose track of the most important opinion of all, yours.

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George Balling is co-owner with his wife, Mary Lancaster, of the dinner party, a wine and gift shop in Coeur d’Alene by Costco. The dinner party has won the award for best wine shop in North Idaho twice, including for 2018.

George is also published in several other publications around the country. After working in wineries in California and judging many wine competitions, he moved to Coeur d’Alene with Mary more than 10 years ago to open the shop.

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