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BevMo's in-house wine critic

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article today on Wilfred Wong and Beverages and More, a large California wine retailer.

At issue is the fact that Wong, who tastes 8,500 wines per year (not the 3,000 mentioned in the article), rates wines on a 100-point scale for the company, which then takes his ratings and uses them to promote the wines in their dozens of locations. The article questions whether the consumer can trust Wong's evaluations, or if they are just there to help the company sell wine.

I have known Wong for a number of years. His evaluations help the company make buying decisions, which is why it sends him to Europe each year on fact-finding missions. He also judges about 15 competitions per year, using those notes to find the top wines.

Thus, I think the question is not whether Wong's scores would be adjusted to help sell a wine but how much trust BevMo is putting in Wong's palate. That question is easy to answer if you've ever judged with Wong. He has one of the finest in the business.

By the way, here's a video interview Eric Degerman conducted with him earlier this winter:

By aperdue at Mar 3 2008 - 8:55am | wine shops | aperdue's blog | 657 reads

Wrestling with Wilfred Wong

A gadlfy question: Does Wilfred Wong rate his wines without reading the labels? That is, are his point scores blind? Sorry, but I had to ask, of course!

P.S. Yes, the Barnard Griffin ports are hard to beat at their price point. And, at a higher price point, I also have been impressed by the excellent, not-overly-sweet ports made by Steve Lessard at Hedges and now at Whitman. It would be fun to do a WA port shoot-out some time. Blindly, of course...

By andyplymale at Tue, 03/04/2008 - 11:06pm | login or register to post comments

Wilfred Wong

I cannot speak to how he tastes beyond the 15 or so wine competitions he judges. During those, he definitely is blind.

And I like your thinking on a Port tasting. We haven't done of of those for Wine Press Northwest in years.

By aperdue at Wed, 03/05/2008 - 8:10am | login or register to post comments

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