Massachusetts wine sucks!

Fact:  Every state in America has a winery.
Question:  How good is the wine being made in each state?

Joel Stein set out to find the answer by drinking and evaluating one wine from each state - 50 states, 50 wines.  He did it with help from his wife, his friends and Gary Vaynerchuck.  This sure seems like a fun exercise and the type of thing that I would love to participate in.  But this experiment was actually published in Time magazine and that’s what I have a problem with.  Readers, regular wine drinkers or not, could read the Time’s article and make purchasing decisions based on how each of the individual state was rated in the review.  Here's the problem…  No single wine can indicate the quality of ALL wine being produced in its native state.  However, reading the review for the Massachusetts wine that was chosen would lead most people to conclude that Massachusetts wine simply sucks.  Here is the review for the Nobska Red wine produced by Cape Cod Winery:

<<If an old lady were to make wine at her bed-and-breakfast and the only ingredients she had to work with were sugar and paint thinner, she'd make this wine. Everyone at the wine-tasting party was choking and running to shake off the taste that reaches down and drags up the darkest part of your soul. Have you ever had cheap grappa? Or Old Grand-Dad whiskey? Then you have some idea of the face this wine causes you to make. Why would you make a heavy, Bordeaux-style red blend (which is what the winery claims it's aiming for) in this cool climate when, even if you somehow succeeded, it would never go with Cape Cod food? A woman at our party has a parent who lives near a different winery in Cape Cod, and she said its wine is awful too.  Rating: Undrinkable — by Joel Stein>>

The review is right on point.  They nailed it for sure.  I tasted this wine early this year after I had heard that the winery was for sale at the time (I don’t believe it was sold).  I had about half a glass of it and dumped the rest.  Cape Cod Winery’s Nobska Red is quite simply one of the worst wines ever produced in the history of mankind.  This is not a subjective matter… the wine is technically faulty and should have never made it to the market.  How did Joel Stein select this wine for his review beats me.  But the Nobska Red is not an indication of the overall quality of the wine being produced in our state.  I’ve written before that there is room for improvement but to make this Nobska Red our state’s “example” wine is wrong.  It’s wrong and not fair to everyone else working hard to improve the quality of their wines, especially those dedicated to growing their own grapes right here in Massachusetts.

To get an accurate review of the quality of wine being produced in each state we would need to taste every single wine being made.  Just kidding :-)  I know this would be an impossible task since there would be tens of thousands of wines to be tasted.  So maybe we should taste a few from each state.  A criteria could be established to determine how wines are selected as representatives of their state.

I salute the experiment and think that it’s certainly a fun way to look at wine in America, maybe even raise more interest in American wine.  But I’m concerned for the inaccurate conclusions that readers may take away from this.  I want to ask the few of you who read my blog to please don’t give up on our local wines even if you come a across a bad one.  Unless the bad one is my own, in which case I expect you to bring it back to me and ask for your money back.

Note that it is not my intention to bash Cape Cod Winery and the people there who I’m sure have no intention to put out crappy wine.

Comments

[Dale Cruse]

To play the devil's advocate, if we agree that "the Nobska Red is not an indication of the overall quality of the wine being produced in our state" then can we also agree that any other wine on Time's list is "not an indication of the overall quality of the wine being produced in [each] state?"

[Nuno]

Good point Marco,

Now it would be nice if Joel Stein would read comments above.

The way to do it?!?! Play off style!

First each state would hold a contest to declare their best wine(s). Then, the above mentioned test would make more sense.

[Marco]

Dale - Exactly. I'm not sure that we can just assume that the reader's will realize on their own that these wines are not an indication of overall quality. Again, fun experiment, but I would expect more from this publication. Picking the wines randomly does not seem right. And don't even get me started on "White is easier to make than red". BTW: How about Massachusetts wine writers including bloggers get together and taste our state's wine and come up with their own evaluation? It would be fun and I'm sure we could all benefit from it. I have a bunch of ideas if you are interested in heading the project.

[Marco]

Nuno - I agree but with a twist... the winner and representative wine should be the average of all state wines in terms of quality. But when we start talking about quality it gets really subjective in the world of wine. What I may think is good you may not like at all. Though most people can easily agree when a wine tastes like shit :-)

Thanks to both you and Dale for participating in the discussion. I can't get enough of your feedback.

[RichardA]

I certainly agree that choosing a random wine from a state is no guarantee that you will get a representative wine. Now, I would agree there is a lot of mediocre wine made in MA, but there are also some excellent wines as well. Turtle Creek is my favorite MA winery. Westport Rivers also makes some very good wines.

It might have been better if Joel had checked in each state with local bloggers, writers and such to find some good wines.

[Marco]

Richard - Well put. Sure if there is a lot of crap being made here in MA, there is a higher chance that a bad wine would be selected for the "test". But the wine chosen is beyond mediocre, it is technically faulty.

Thanks for the feedback... I really appreciate it.

[x-ray fluorescence]

Hi,
Good point.I'm not sure that we can just assume that the reader's will realize on their own that these wines are not an indication of overall quality.