About
About davidlole.com
Welcome!
For well over 20 years now, my passion of collecting, cellaring and drinking fine wine, ultimately, led to the creation of this wine-blog. davidlole.com will house my tasting notes from June 2006, as well as other wine-related issues and topics worthy of a mention.
I live in Canberra, Australia, am married with two daughters and have worked in the motor vehicle industry since 1982. Some of my forays into wine over the years include writing for the Canberra Times, holding an auctioneer’s licence, membership to a variety of clubs and private tasting groups and, over the last several years, actively contributing to a number of fora on the world wide web.
Thanks for visiting and feel free to comment or contact me if the need arises.
Cheers,
DLo
Footnote - Scoring
After much consternation and deliberation, my tasting notes on this site will be accompanied by a score out of one hundred, and then, only after proper and full evaluation. My philosophy is not to hand out points with gay abandon, as, seemingly, some other scribes seem, almost compulsively, obliged to allocate. Another problem I’ve noted with an even higher number of “scorers” is the narrow range in which they score. In reality, score compaction (i.e. just about everything scores in the 85-95 point range) only proves to highlight the inadequacies of the one hundred point system - it is used (perhaps abused is a better choice of word here) for commercial propagation, fear of being ridiculed and fails to reflect the true quality of what is in the glass (not to mention the damage of the credibility of the reviewer embracing such a practice).
My primary focus will be on the detail in the tasting note and the score a reference point of where the wine may rate in relation to another. Hopefully, the table below eschews any confusion on this matter.
95-100 points - Exceptional - a wine of rare class and breed - the “Ultimate” or “Holy Grail”
91-94 points - Outstanding - exemplary wine in every respect
88-90 points - Excellent - a wine full of interest, very few, if any faults, often of impressive QPR
85-88 points - Very Good - technically sound with more than a modicum of class
80-84 points - Good - a modicum of class, perhaps with a few minor faults
75-79 points - Acceptable/Fair - “Vin Ordinaire” - very little excitement here, but should at least be drinkable
74 points and below - Poor/Faulty/Passed it
15 Comments so far
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I am very pleased to see you have joined the blogosphere. Yet another site for me to spend my time!
Hope the site is of some interest, Edward. Thanks for your comment.
I’m excited to read your notes…you seem to have such a varied, deep background in wine! I also like your approach to the scoring of wines. That always seems too arbitrary yet somehow seemingly necessary on other blogs, so I definitely like your ideas.
David
It is great to see another quality Australian Wine Blog. There aren’t that many around and so far your wines are very different to others that are being highlighted.
It is interesting to see how varied the views and tastes are - as many and varied as the wines out there I guess. Keep up the great posts! Thanks
MalB
Good Luck DLo.
More Yarra Valley please.
And lets see if you can keep the notes under a page long:)
What’s this ‘your comment is awaiting moderation’ stuff.
Do wineries get to moderate your comments? he he, just kidding
To keep people, like you, under control.
Thanks for dropping in …. and, by the way, how’s your vineyard in the Yarra Valley going these days?
It’s sleeping mate.
Well I’m off to SVA now. Maybe have a chance to call in and say hello, but time is tight.
Cheers
DLo,
Love your site
Nothing like somewhere to discussed aged rieslings
Cheers, Mark
David,I am not sure just how I discovered your web page and blog, but I am happy that I did. I see that I will have plenty of reading to do as winter is starting to “sit down” here in the northern hemisphere. Good going buddy!
Great to see you found my blog, Bob - will be talking to you soon in chat, no doubt!
Cheers!
What a great blog, you have a great knowledge of wine!!
Rachel is my 15-year-old daughter!
David, I have an opportunity to buy some 2000 Tahbilk shiraz, and some 1999 Tahbilk cabernet for what I expect to be great price(s). do you have notes on either or both? you of course know that I have a soft spot for Tahbilk, and am still trying to put my 10 year vertical of marsanne together.
Sorry Bob,
Can’t help you with any personal experience with either but I have some ratings from some of the local guru’s -the ‘99 Cab was rated at 88, drink 2007-2011 and the 2000 Shiraz, 89, drink 2008-2012+. Guessing both would be worth about 15 bucks, at a pinch, over here.