My Article: When Good Ratings Just Aren’t Good Enough

I read with interest this morning the controversy surrounding The New York Times writer Eric Asimov’s review of a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, called Isa: http://nyti.ms/s0n7Vl.

Eric’s piece, in my opinion, was as cleverly written as ever, and very positive on the whole. It made me want to check out the funky restaurant. However, apparently the owners of Isa didn’t appreciate their eatery’s one star rating, and even thought it criticized Brooklyn dining at large. So, as the English say, they took the piss out of Eric with humorous entries on their menu in his homage: http://bit.ly/uGDoVA.

It’s all fair game in my book. It’s amusing too, although slightly provincial New York City.

However, one of the points to me of this tiny dispute between critic and subject is one I have to deal with as well as a wine critic: Good reviews – whether restaurants or wines – just aren’t good enough anymore, particularly for the subjects themselves.

I can’t tell you how many times I get disappointed responses when I rate a wine 90 points. I hear all the time that if I don’t give a wine 95 points or more, then it doesn’t matter. Just recently, a wine merchant told me that “I can only move something from the shelves with a 98, 99 or 100-point rating.”

Of course, this doesn’t change the way I rate wines. I have my method, and I will keep to it. But it shows that notion of ratings inflation seems the highest among those being rated, regardless if they are winery, restaurant, or just about anything else.

I remember tasting at Sloan winery in Napa Valley this year, and the owner was shocked when I rated one of his Cabernets 94 points, if I remember correctly. He later told me that my rating didn’t make sense because it was a 100-point wine.

Oh well. Sometimes outstanding ratings, or even good ones, just aren’t enough any more.