Engineering Wine Criticism w/ Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com

Becoming a wine critic sounds like a dream for many.  However, even though the cost and effort of setting up a website and putting out information have declined dramatically, doing the work of becoming a professional is no easy task - the time and effort it takes to taste and review thousands of wines a year is daunting.  Jeb’s journey from aerospace engineer to reviewer of The Wine Advocate to being the Editor-in-Chief of jebdunnuck.com highlights the passion required for the journey.  Jeb talks about his journey, critics going independent, blind tasting, score inflation, and more, all in service of helping his subscribers make informed wine buying decisions.  Another unique viewpoint on the evolution of the wine critic on XChateau!Detailed Show Notes: Jeb’s backgroundHe grew up on a farm in rural Indiana - no wine on the tableSelf-trained in wineHe traveled through France and fell in love with wineHe never had an epiphany wineWorked at Lockheed Martin in upstate New York - was an aerospace engineer for his initial careerDid a part-time job at a wine store in Denver2008 - created a website - The Rhone ReportReleased a quarterly pdf for free for 3 yearsBuilt a subscriber base for 2 years2013 - Robert Parker asked him to work at The Wine Advocate (“TWA”)Worked at TWA for 5 yearsHaving a chance to work with Robert Parker was key to joining2017 - left TWA and started JebDunnuck.comThe Rhone Report reviews were morphed into JebDunnuck.comLeft TWA because Jeb disagreed with the direction of the new ownership, the culture changed dramaticallyWine critic vs. wine publicationBelieves the person writing the reviews is more important than the publicationThe business model of publications lean them to emphasizing the publication over the criticIt’s up to the consumer to know their criticsJebDunnuck.com (“JD”)More of a “singular voice”He doesn’t believe in large teams of criticsJebDunnuck.com has a small group of critics covering multiple regions eachJeb doesn’t pretend to be a writer as he comes from an engineering background => his goal is to help the consumer make buying decisions and find the wines they likeWrites concise vintage reports, talks about style and structure of winesHe doesn’t write opinion pieces, commentary, or do eventsHe doesn’t take money to review wines, completely subscriber fundedReviews 9-12k wines/yearCritics going independentBelieves the trend is actually towards more business-driven, team-driven critic reviews => the size of the wine world is so big that it is pushing that wayIf the critic is the most important thing for reviews, going independent is the way to do wine criticismBest practices for wine critic ethicsDon’t take money from people making the productThere are shades of grey - e.g., sometimes people pick up the tab at a dinnerCritics should pay their own way (airfare, hotels, meals, etc.…)JD buys a lot of wines but could not purchase them allCost of being independentWebsite and getting information out is low nowBut providing professional (e.g., extensive) coverage is hard and expensive (time, travel)Blind tastingJeb is a fan of blind tasting for how to approach winesBelieves the role of the critic is more than the tasting note - it’s to provide context on the region and the producer (which can’t be done with blind tasting)People promoting blind tasting are taking money from the trade, so Jeb believes they have to sell their processImpact of top scoresLess impact today because so many great wines out thereMore great wines than ever before => lots of substitutes, even at 95+, 100 point scoresPathway for wineries to become iconicMake a consistently great wine, takes timeNeed to have wines tasted and reviewed by top publicationsNeed to make enough so people can try it and get exposure globallyScore inflation and compression“I do think scores have increased”Believes there’s less compression - more critics are using the whole scale (up to 100) with more highly rated wines than in the pastThe format of score presentation now gives the appearance of score inflationScores used as email marketing will only be high onesMost people access scores online via a score database, sorting by the highest score vs. having to read through a printed documentScores used for large reports to give delineation between wines100 point wines for Jeb must have the following:Hedonistic pleasureIntellectual pleasureIntensity of aromas and flavorsAge abilitySingularity (they stand out)Barrel samplesSimilar to evaluating a young wine, can still be usefulRange ratings for barrel samples are important because the scores can come out before the wines are released, giving subscribers guidance for purchasingJD’s subscriber baseDon’t have a lot of demographic info on subscribersPretty serious about wine, mostly collectors~80% US-based, so CA wines are important to themUser-generated reviewsCellarTracker - useful because you can follow individualsAggregate reviews are not useful;  “0 x 100 = 0” Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. 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