What Does It Mean For A Wine To Gain Wisdom As It Ages? with Neal Hulkower

Natalie MacLean
Feb18th

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Introduction

Should wine competitions give judges the option to say that none of the wines in a category deserve a medal? Why have some classic regions become inaccessible while others remain within reach for wine drinkers? What does it mean for a wine to gain wisdom as it ages?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Neal Hulkower, a PhD rocket scientist, who has just published his first book, Grape Explications.

You can find the wines we discussed here.

 

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Highlights

  • What was one biostatistician’s objection to the way wine competitions were scored?
  • Why does Neal fundamentally disagree with the view that some judges’ opinions should carry more weight?
  • What are the Power of None and the Stars and Bars method and how do they change the way judges assess competitors?
  • Why did Neal apply these ranking methods to historic tastings like the Judgment of Paris, and what did the results reveal?
  • What did revisiting his tasting notebooks from the 1960s and 1970s reveal about wine prices, aging, and accessibility?
  • How did Neal set a personal ceiling on wine price, and how does that shape what he considers drinkable?
  • Why have some classic wines remained attainable while others are now priced out of affordability?
  • How did opening a carefully chosen older bottle reinforce Neal’s belief that wine can gain wisdom as it ages?

 

Key Takeaways

  • Should wine competitions give judges the option to say that none of the wines in a category deserve a medal?
    • Natalie: It seems to me sometimes wine competitions give a medal to everybody just for participating, right? So if it’s a weak category, you’re going to get a gold if you’re the best in a weak category, whereas this, it seems, would say, actually, nobody measured up. There shouldn’t be medals given out for this one.
    • Neal: Yes, that’s precisely what it can do. You should be able to say none as your option, that you don’t want to vote for any, and then have everybody else ranked underneath that either equally or, you know. So the paper that I wrote with my friend John Netrower, who got me into wine, examines that in great detail and the implication. suppose that the judge who ranked the wine in the 60s really didn’t like any of them, but was compelled to rank them. He could put in none as a first and rank the others underneath. Whereas those in the 90s would have none at the bottom because they liked all of them. in the 70s might have none in between. And then you aggregate and none turns up where it is. And then the overall ranking.
  • Why have some classic regions become inaccessible while others remain within reach for wine drinkers?
    • Neal: These notebooks, provided me remarkable data on my tasting history between 1969, 1979 and I said, gee, I drank some fabulous stuff back then, you know, classified growths, aged Burgundies. You know, you could pick up a 25 year old Burgundy for $19. Granted it’s still a lot of money, but still. And I said, wonder if, first of all, if any of those wines are still available and if so, what would they cost? And if not, is there something similar that’s out there, similar age that I could afford? I did an analysis. I went through Wine Searcher again to see what was available, how much it cost. Did all of my descriptive statistics and then I also had my current inventory, which I keep in a spreadsheet. And I looked at the maximum price I paid for a bottle of wine, and I said, okay, that represents the limit. Empirically, this is the most I paid, and that’s the most I’m willing to pay. And then I took a look to see what else was available that was at that or below that price. Turned out there was some. Anything that wasn’t exactly what I had, I looked for something of comparable age for when I had it, and I and I did the same kind of thing. I looked to see if it fell under that number.
    • Natalie: So what was your conclusion with the presentation? What can I still afford to drink? Not much or… It doesn’t have to be specific, but I just have this vision that Bordeaux, Burgundy, they’ve all gone crazy, even in the last 5 to 10 years.
    • Neal: More than I expected but German wines don’t.
  • What does it mean for a wine to gain wisdom as it ages?
    • Neal: One of the things that changed in my palate over the year is that I don’t crave fruit. I prefer savoury elements to a wine or things like truffle, umami characteristics and so on. There’s a word I use for one. I’ve seen somebody else use it too. especially ones that are venerable. Wisdom. The wine acquires wisdom. It’s not brash. It’s not in your face. It says, Sit with me for a while and let’s have an olfactory conversation. Watch me as I change.

 

About Neal Hulkower

Neal D. Hulkower is an applied mathematician and freelance writer living in McMinnville, Oregon. His first contributions to a wine publication appeared in the early 1970s. Since 2009, he has been writing regularly about wine-related topics for academic, trade, and popular publications including the Journal of Wine Research, the Journal of Wine Economics, American Wine Society Wine Journal, Oregon Wine Press, Practical Winery & Vineyard, Wine Press Northwest, the Slow Wine Guide USA, and The World of Fine Wine and on wine-searcher.com, trinkmag.com, and guildsomm.com. Neal is a member of the American Wine Society, the American Association of Wine Economists, and the Circle of Wine Writers. His first book, Grape Explications, was released in 2025. He can occasionally be found pouring some of Oregon’s finest in a tasting room at the top of the Dundee Hills.

 

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  • The new audio edition of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass is now available on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com and other country-specific Amazon sites; iTunes.ca, iTunes.com and other country-specific iTunes sites; Audible.ca and Audible.com.

 

Transcript

 

Books and Wine, Books: Wine, Boxed Wine, Food & Wine Pairing, Podcasts, Serving Wine, Taste Wine, Wine Question, Wine Style, Wine Tasting, Wine Tasting Notes, Wine Trends, Wine Writing, Women and Wine