James Laube Explained

James Laube ([1]) is an American wine critic, writing for Wine Spectator since 1980, a full-time staff writer since 1983, with expertise on California wine. Laube has published the books California's Great Cabernets, California's Great Chardonnays, and California Wine containing nearly 700 winery profiles with chapters on California wine history, grapes and wine styles,[2] which won the 1996 James Beard Award for best wine book of the year.[3]

TCA taint controversy

A Wine Spectator report by Laube that Chateau Montelena wine was tainted by TCA,[4] was followed by a great deal of controversy, and the contention that Laube is able to detect TCA at much lower levels than most people.[5] [6] In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, Steve Heimoff, an editor of a competing wine magazine Wine Enthusiast, wrote that Laube's position as a critic in a prominent magazine should be more cautious about branding wines as being tainted when most wine drinkers do not have the same level of sensitivity to detect anything wrong with those wines.[7]

Influence on California wine

As the lead reviewer of wines from California for Wine Spectator, Laube's influence over the California wine industry has been compared to that of the Wine Advocate's Robert M. Parker, Jr. Laube's preference for high alcohol, full bodied wines that have been aged in oak has been charged by some critics as a possible reason for the high numbers of that style of wine being produced in California.[8] [9]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wine #4 of 2009. 20 December 2022.
  2. News: Prial . Frank, The New York Times . Wine Talk . The New York Times . December 13, 1995 .
  3. 90pluswines.com James Laube
  4. Web site: Laube . James, Wine Spectator . Chateau Montelena and TCA . November 2, 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090716123726/http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,2398,00.html . July 16, 2009 . dead . July 31, 2008 .
  5. News: Emert . Carol, San Francisco Chronicle . Montelena joins the list of tainted wineries . September 9, 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120131081717/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/09/WIG7I8L5751.DTL . January 31, 2012 . live . The San Francisco Chronicle .
  6. Web site: Yarrow . Alder, vinography.com . Let a Computer Chip Do The Sniffing For You . February 10, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110717210051/http://www.vinography.com/archives/2006/02/let_a_computer_chip_do_the_sni.html . July 17, 2011 . live .
  7. News: Heimoff . Steve, San Francisco Chronicle: Letters to Wine . Critic Laube cautioned on the power of his palate . September 23, 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120201000635/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/23/WIGK48SKIC1.DTL . February 1, 2012 . live . The San Francisco Chronicle .
  8. News: Gray . W.Blake, San Francisco Chronicle . Are ratings pointless? The highs - and lows - of the 100-point scale . June 15, 2007 . The San Francisco Chronicle.
  9. News: Darlington . David, The New York Times . The Chemistry of a 90+ Wine . The New York Times . August 7, 2005.

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