Here at Vinfolio I keep my ear pretty close to the ground when it comes to new releases. Do I find myself at the door of every one? Unfortunately a few will zip by. Like a shooting star, they go so fast I ask myself "was it really even there?" I have great relationships with virtually all of the brokers and wineries that I work with and am able to taste most everything on the first day they are available. Years ago when I began writing reviews on wines and numerically rating wines I liked, customers would initially ask me if that was a score from a major publication. I would let them know it was my personal evaluation of the wine and that they may need to wait several months to read a review on the same wine in a major publication. I recently ran across an example of this phenomenon this week when I received my new issue of The Wine Spectator. You may recall I wrote my impressions on the newly released Carter Cellars wines last week, the 2004 vintages. They were all delicious and highly recommended by Vinfolio. When I opened the new November 15, 2006 issue of Spectator I noticed that Jim Laube had listed the 2002 Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer-To Kalon at the top of the page. How much success will someone have going out and trying to find this wine currently? I recently did an analysis of all the wines listed with reviews in common from the Wine Advocate and The Wilder Side of California. Out of 40 wines we had both tasted, the point distribution came down to less than 3%. The major difference, as I mentioned above is how timely is the delivery of information? Allocations of the best California wines I taste can be off of the market within a matter of weeks. That is why it is important to bring these wines to your attention as quickly as possible with the additional resource of our Vinfolio rating as a recommendation. I am working to develop some additional reporting that looks at when major reviewers publish on wines compared to Vinfolio. I think you will be surprised how "ahead of the curve" we are.
How valuable do readers find a Vinfolio recommendation, specifically a review/rating in The Wilder Side of California?
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