Before reading my thoughts on Gobelsburg's wines, a brief reminder how I deploy my “plusses.” Because they can be misconstrued if you view them like other people’s “scores.”
One, I don’t like to think about them while tasting, and if I do I repel the thought. Once the tasting is done I make sure they are supportable and that’s that.
I’ve compared them to Michelin stars. That’s reasonable. Here I’ll issue a reminder of what I intend with them, which is not to indicate the relative“quality” of a wine with perfection as the
pinnacle. I find that to be ridiculous, cognitively incoherent, aesthetically messy, and infantilizing to the reader.
For me, one plus means “pause what you’re doing and look at this; it’s worth doing.”
Two plusses means “stop what you’re doing and devote your complete attention to this for a few minutes; it will reward your interruption.”
Three plusses means “Make this what you do, because it is a remarkable experience you should make the centerpiece of this moment.”
Okay? I bring it up because I put one plus for two consecutive wines, one of which is clearly “better” than the other, but in each case I wanted to suggest you pause so that you don’t bypass something worth a moment of your special attention. It does not indicate that the wines are somehow “equal” in absolute quality – as if I or anyone could judge that. It is merely my sense of where and how the wine belongs in your life.