"I think I like it more than he does"

I can remember reading a review a while back of Gerard Boudot's wine at Domaine Sauzet written, as I recall,  by Steve Tanzer in his “Underground Wine Cellar”. Reviewing a particular wine, Steve concluded with the observation ( or something to the effect ) -  “I think I like it more than he does”. 

The first point to make is that it meant Gerard had some reservations about the wine and was honest enough to share these with a journalist - but that commendable practice is for another post.  I want to focus here simply on the point that normally one expects to like very much the particular wines the grower also likes best.  During a barrel tasting I am very influenced by any preferential comment or statement from the grower that a particular wine showed especially well that year or indeed that one seemed to fall bit short of expectations.  After all they have lived with the wine’s development every day.  How much of a particular bottling I will buy is influenced by what the grower thinks. Which is why I found Steve’s comment to be rare, brave and reflecting a admirable confidence.   

Sometimes this observation is not expressly stated. Bruno Giacosa did not make a riserva wine from the Rocche di Falletto in 2013- and this was no accident. They did not think the wine had enough of what it takes to merit it being a riserva. And yet James Suckling rated the wine 97 points, no less than he might be expected to rate the wine had it been a red label riserva. So it seems he liked it more than Bruno did. No doubt there are many examples.  A critic has no obligation of course to inform his reader what the winegrower thinks of any particular wine or the vintage in general.  But in these days of extraordinary honesty from growers who always sell all their wine anyway, on the whole I find it very helpful to know what the grower himself thinks. So, having invariably to make a buying decision before being able to taste the wine myself,  I scour all the critics reports - even from critics I do not normally follow or especially admire - for the relayed quotes from the growers themselves as much as for what the critic thinks himself. But then you also sometimes get the "I think I like it more than he does" observation from the critic.