Critic to the Wine Critic

[Bucko]

Someone want to give Foodie a tongue transplant, the senile old goat....

As we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but some folks are near-sighted. [img]http://205.134.252.108/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

I used to have a Cal-centric cellar, but the longer I drank the wines, the more I saw they did not develop in the bottle like Old World wines.

I've been to several vertical tastings of high-end wines from CA and WA, such at Screaming Beagle, Harlan, Quilceda Creek, Leonetti, etc. I have always been disappointed in the development. I sold off most of my CA and WA wines at Winebid.

That is my palate. I certainly do not try to dictate others palates. Afterall, our experiences are all we have to judge by. The more I drank the world's wines, the more I came to focus on certain regions.

My cellar now is 95 percent Rhone, Loire, Alsace, Mosel, Oporto and New Zealand.

You notice no Italian or Burgundy. I have friends who have cellars composed almost entirely of same. It is all about personal preference.

I remain convinced that as a person explores the wine regions of the world, they will gravitate away from the fruit-forward, high-alcohol, highly-extracted wines.