What still amazes me about wine critics is that you get to see a lot about their life through their tasting notes. The flavours and aromas that they use to describe a wine can give you a surprising amount of insight into what they relate to. Take Gary Vaynerchuk, he was all about Fruit Loops, Skittles and pork fat - a perfect set of tasting notes from a child of the 1980s! Jamie Goode is more simple and to the point with his notes - flavour - flavour - flavour - comment on structure - summery of the wine - done. A methodical approach, charismatic of the scientist he is. Olly Smith embraces the Monty Python in his character and has backflipping penguins landing on pineapples and Michael Broadbent is much more about the construction of the wine and the overall experience, relating to the many previous times he has tried the wine and showing a dignity as an elder statesman of wine. You really can learn a lot about the character of a person when reading their notes.
I mention this because I don't want you to judge me on a wine I tried today. I rarely get drunk - in fact, I rarely drink, preferring to taste wines and let my colleagues finish off the bottle. I don't smoke and have never done any form of illegal narcotic in my life - not even the more socially acceptable ones. I am, to be honest, pretty boring! So imagine my surprise when the first smell I got from the
2011 16 Stops Shiraz (£8.99) from Liberty Wines, was marijuana.
Yep, before the crisp raspberries and tobacco came through, I got so much of of Amsterdam's finest blasting into my olfactory gland, it made me want to grab a Bob Marley record and wear a kaftan. The palate was a bit of a downer after that, with some lighter berries, a bit of red apple skin and some black pepper coated plums, but like walking down any street in the capital of the Netherlands, you just can't avoid smelling the pot! 80pts
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