93pts. for Condado de Haza - WS goes bananas!

2005 Condado de Haza
I am really puzzled. This wine from the famous A. Fernández received 93pts. by Wine Spectator and is ranked number 34 in the TOP 100 list. This means it is the most highly rated Spanish wine in the Top 100 this year by Wine Spectator.
Typical Condado de Haza flavor profile of blackberry, black cherry, leather and some coffee&black chocolate in the finish. Lacks of any kind of outstanding complexity and length. A solid easy-drinking wine and a good partner for a cigar in front of a fireplace, but nothing more. The rating of 90 or 90+pts. by several american winecritics is absolutely not understandable.
88pts.

http://www.snakvin.com/foto/albums/user ... MG9089.JPG

93pts. by Wine Spectator and is ranked number 34 in the TOP 100 list. This means it is the most highly rated Spanish wine in the Top 100 this year by Wine Spectator.

You're doing too much math for this wine.

[Jenise]

Typical Condado de Haza flavor profile ...A solid easy-drinking wine [/b]

This is why so many of us don't take critic's point scores too seriously, and the Spectator Top 100 list least of all.

[David M. Bueker]

Martin - I just have to ask why your impression of the wine is more credible than the Spectator's? So you don't like it as much. That doesn't make their assessment "bananas", just different.

Martin - I just have to ask why your impression of the wine is more credible than the Spectator's? So you don't like it as much. That doesn't make their assessment "bananas", just different.

Unless it could be proved that the WS is making $$$$$ off their ratings, and I know, that you know, that I don't mean magazine sales. I rather agree with Jenise's take on Martin's report.

[David M. Bueker]

Everybody likes to bring that up whenever they don't agree with a WS rating (I am not a subscriber by the way). It's a red herring.

David,

maybe the bottles shipped to USA are different, but I think I have the experience to discover a 90+pts. wine. 2005 Condado de Haza is clearly not........

Cheers,
Martin

[David M. Bueker]

I've had it. I like it. I don't give points, but think it's a very well made example.

Everybody's scale is different. You would not want to see what I really think of the Keller wines.

I know your love of Keller wines.

[David M. Bueker]

Heh, heh

I did take delivery of my 2007 Donnhoff Grosses Gewachs 6-pack (2 each of the 3 different GG) the other day. Keller has yet to hit my door.

.....

Heh, heh

.......a "G-Max" is reserved for you if you ever come to Berlin.

Martin - I just have to ask why your impression of the wine is more credible than the Spectator's? So you don't like it as much. That doesn't make their assessment "bananas", just different.

Over here to "go bananas" would be in effect to get very excited by something.

If you wanted to criticise, you could describe it as a bananas judgement.

Is this a difference in linguistics or a slight but significant misinterpretation of what Martin actually said?

... and to echo others, top 100s are a futile activity in the wine world, especially the chasing of these wines when so many others do the same and the cost of the wine escalates.

It isn't just Wine Speculator that get overly optimistic about Iberian wines.

Jay Miller also gets carried away. He consistently over rates Castano Hecula and Solanera, for instance. Nice wines, good values, sure. Ratings in the low 90s.....puhleease. He repeats the error with Australian wines. He is obviously a fruit slut - wave a piece of ripe fruit under his nose and he forgets basics like structure, balance...... I wish Parker would get someone who is closer to his own past performance on these regions rather than what is in effect a cat for whom blousy fruit acts as catnip.

PS - I lost a lot of respect for Alejandro when he made a couple of killer wines when he first made Condado, then sold out in the ensuing weak vintages and made dilute (relative) crap.

Have to agree with David on this one. I respect everybody's opinion, but only honor my own.

I had the 2004 Condado de Haza. In general I thought it was a very solid Tempranillo. I generally agree with the WS tasting notes though I don't get hung up on the top 100. I question whether any group of tasters can really separate a large number of wines into any finer increments than groups of 10. It would be neat to see a WS wine taster gauge R&R study to measure their accuracy and precision. I brought this issue up a while ago related to a 17 point scoring difference for a wine between two tasters.

2005 Condado de Haza
I am really puzzled. This wine from the famous A. Fernández received 93pts. by Wine Spectator and is ranked number 34 in the TOP 100 list. This means it is the most highly rated Spanish wine in the Top 100 this year by Wine Spectator.
Typical Condado de Haza flavor profile of blackberry, black cherry, leather and some coffee&black chocolate in the finish. Lacks of any kind of outstanding complexity and length. A solid easy-drinking wine and a good partner for a cigar in front of a fireplace, but nothing more. The rating of 90 or 90+pts. by several american winecritics is absolutely not understandable.
88pts.

http://www.snakvin.com/foto/albums/user ... MG9089.JPG

Hi Martin,
I sort of have mixed feelings about the Condado wine. it seems to me to be a rather new style (world) Spanish wine. I have a 1995 and a 1998 of this wine in the cellar, and I am making black bean soup with andouille for dinner tonight. I think I will put one or the other on the table for dinner with the soup. I was weaned onto wine back in the late 60's and my favorite then was the Marquis de Riscal Reserva. I bought it then for $1 per 750ml bottle, so I was able to sample even some older vintages. Wonderful winethat in the 80's & 90's went through a bad period. Over the past couple years I have come back the the Riscal and found that the '02 and '03 vintages are very very nice, albeit a bit lighter weight than I remember. Anyway, given the Riscal at $15, or the Condado at $40 or so, Guess which one I will drink!

[David M. Bueker]

Condado for $40???

It's $24.99 at my local shop.

$26 here David. I tasted this wine tonite at the WS Top 100 tasting at store downtown. I thought it had its merits and it sure flew off the shelf after the tasting! Full notes coming soon/asap.