Memorable Quotes 2010

“There is no such thing as a 100-point wine.” ......Neil Beckett, Editor, The World of Fine Wine

“Pinot is the moral compass of the wine world.” ......Allen Meadows, Burghound

“Everyone is in the wine business makes a living on alcohol and no one wants to talk about it.”
......Joshua Green, Editor Wines & Spirits

“It is a sad fact that inexpensive, high-quality Pinot Noir is almost non existent.”
......Allen Meadows, Burghound

“In the search for great Pinot, you may not always get what you pay for, but you will never get what you don’t pay for. In short, great Pinot is never cheap.” ......Allen Meadows

“Wine’s ability to evoke other places and experiences gives it a powerful emotional component.”
......Daniel Patterson, chef

“Pinots are the chameleons of wine, acting like a white wine with its aromatic fruit, high acidity and moderate to high alcohol; yet it has red wine characteristics, too, though with less big red wine high tannins. ......Gary Danko, chef

“It turns out that our ability to tell wines apart on the basis of their color is actually much better than our ability to categorize them on the basis of their aroma.” ......Professor Charles Spence, The World of Fine Wine

“A guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing can ruin a great site. I know guys who we could drop in the middle of Montrachet and they’d produce crap.” ......James Ontiveros, winegrower, SFGate

“We’re never going to get to the notion of wines on the table until you have wines that are balanced.”
......Jared Brandt , winemaker, SFGate

“New Zealand can rightly claim to make the best good value Pinot in the world.” ......Matthew Jukes, Decanter

“Perfect ripeness in Pinot Noir is a knife edge......the key to great Pinot Noir is the perfect equipoise of full physiological maturity, without noticeable leaf on the one hand, or noticeable black plumminess of fruit on the other.” ......Geoff Kelly, The World of Fine Wine

“We can communicate; but our noses are weak. And we should forgive the tortured descriptive efforts of some wine critics. Learning to communicate is, inherently, even harder than learning to taste (which is primarily learning to smell).” ......Michael Bywater, The World of Fine Wine

“I have no objection to what other winemakers do with their own wines. But I refuse to accept this absurd premise that power somehow equates to quality. Everyone wants evanescence, everyone’s looking for that iron fist in the velvet glove, but then they turn around and accept a big smack in the face and say it’s the best thing out there - that’s just patently absurd.” ......Jim Clendenen, winemaker, Wine & Spirits

“It’s estimated that the existence of wholesalers adds about 18-25 percent to the price of every alcoholic beverage sold in America.” .....David White, The World of Fine Wine

The 2008 vintage shows what can happen in Oregon when everything comes out right.”
......Harvey Steinman, Wine Spectator

“In any tasting of wines of terroir, we face a daunting task. Winemakers are children playing with the gifts of God. When we taste the fruits of their labor, we ask that they step out of the way. We ask that the stumbles and temper tantrums of the vintage, the challenges of harvesting, fermenting, pressing and aging should continue smoothly. And that our winemakers should leave behind in the bottle no trace of their failings, but only the beautiful expression of the places where they have been.”
......Ted Lemon, Littorai, personal communication