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Headlines A Are Scores Obsolete? SEPTEMBER NEWS NEWS BY TE S BLAZE DESTROYS GRAPE BINS thick pillar of black smoke towered above the Fairfield, Calif., plant of Industry and wine trade members hope to dull the power of the 100-point rating system by leading wine critics—Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, the Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. Now a group supported by 100,000-case Hedges Family Estate in Benton City, Wash., is trying to generate grassroots support to break the strangle- hold that numbers have on wine. Supporters have published a man- ifesto at scor- evolution.com and encourage all who agree to sign up. Name s on B the list include influential wine importer and sell- er Kermit Lynch of Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant; iconoclastic Randall Grahm of 20,000- case Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz, Calif.; Rajat Parr, head of wine for Michael Mina's restaurant group; Jona- than Nossiter, director of the controversial film "Mondevino" and author of Liquid Memory; wine satirist W.R. Tish, author Rod Smith and food and wine columnist Jeff Cox. A number of small wineries have also signed up. Although the effort to dethrone scores may seem quixotic, the proponents make many good points. The manifesto states: "If we rely on the biased palates of a select few—and no palate can 14 Wines & Vines sePTeMBeR 2011 enton City, Wash.—Wine produc- ers and writers have grumbled about numerical wine scores ever since they were first promoted ever be unbiased, as the process of tasting is supremely personal—to tell us what is good, great and perfect, then haven't we sacrificed our own personal understanding of the wine, and as such, what would be the point of drinking it? "The 100-point rating system is a clum- sy and useless tool for examining wine. If wine is, as we believe, a subjec- tive, subtle and experiential thing, then by nature it is unquantifiable. Wine scores are merely a static symbol, an ab- solute defini - tion based on a singular contact with a wine, and thus completely in- effective when applied to a dy- namic, evolving and multifaceted product. "To discuss a wine's tannins, acid, balance, structure, fruit, etc., is es- sential. To share our thoughts and winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keyword "score." experiences with other humans is argu- ably one of the most important parts of drinking wine. To introduce a score to this process is condescending, overly simplistic and often largely inaccurate." Randall Grahm says he signed as an in- dividual: "Wine scores are pernicious. Wine points are pernicious." He believes points simply capture one person's perceptions at one moment in time. "They don't talk about how wine changes over time. Point scores don't respect the wine," he tells Wines & Vines. —Paul Franson Macro Plastics Inc. on July 26, dominating Northern California news broadcasts and forcing nearby resi- dents to shelter in place. No one was seriously injured in the blaze, but acres of massive stacks of polypropylene and poly- ethylene MacroBins were incinerated. Macro Plastics has already resumed fabricating and shipping MacroBins, which have be- come an integral part of many grapegrowing/ winemaking operations across the continent. winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keyword "MacroBins." T CALAvERAS SHOWS OFF vINEYARDS he Calaveras Winegrape Alliance (CWA) annual vineyard tour, organized jointly with the University of California Coopera- tive Extension, recently visited six vineyards. C a l a v e r a s County, in the Sierra Foot- hills American Vi t icul tural Area, currently has more than 900 acres of vineyards and a pending application for AVA status. Grapegrowing and wine production began during the Gold Rush period, but most of the county's vineyards and its 31 bonded wineries (plus six virtual wineries, per WinesVinesDATA), began pro- duction during the past 30 years. PEEK AT THE OREGON WINE REPORT still work to be done to achieve long-term economic stability. A report commissioned by the Oregon Wine Board from Full Glass Research of Berkeley, Calif., pegs the con- tribution of Oregon's wine industry to the state economy at $2.7 billion, up from $1.4 billion in 2004, with a net added value of $1.6 billion last year vs. $996 million in 2004. O regon's wineries are claiming their place on the national stage, but there's