Summary:

Did you enjoy reading our Great Debate blog on The Language of Wine, Tasting Notes & Scores with Andrew Jefford and Dr William Kelley? 

The challenge of how we might best describe wine aromas and flavours continues to fascinate wine students and enthusiasts alike: this is your chance to question both a wine-writing veteran and one of the most talented of the new generation of wine critics about their work in this field  The scoring of wines is now universally practised and the use of scores as a sale aid is ubiquitous.  Is this a good thing -- or does it impoverish wine culture?  Can we trust scores?  Is there score inflation at work, and if so how can we re-set scores to optimise their usefulness?  More broadly, can we trust wine journalists and wine critics to work ethically?

Host & Guest: 

William Kelly studied history at St John's College, Oxford for nine years, between 2008 and 2017.  After completing his doctorate (D.Phil) at Oxford, he joined Decanter magazine as its North American correspondent, and since 2017 he has worked for The Wine Advocate, initially reviewing Burgundy -- where he also makes wine, and where he has one of his two homes (the other is in Texas).  He has now added Champagne, Madeira, English sparkling wine and, most recently, Bordeaux to his list of duties.

Andrew Jefford is the Academic Advisor to the Wine Scholar Guild and has been writing about wine since 1988, notably for The Evening Standard and The Financial Times, among other UK newspapers.  He has columns in every edition of Decanter magazine and World of Fine Wine magazine and is co-chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards.  His books include The New France, Whisky Island and Andrew Jefford’s Wine Course.

Read "The Great Debate" Full Article Here.