End of debate: Jamie Goode cuts blog post about Chinese wine

By Jim Boyce

British wine writer Jamie Goode has deleted a blog post that concerned 1) Decanter magazine giving Jia Bei Lan Cabernet Red 2009 an “international trophy“, a first for a Chinese wine, and 2) a less than flattering evaluation of that same vintage by Victoria Moore in The Telegraph.

I enjoyed Moore’s article (read it here), especially the details re wine consultant Li Demei (a contributor to this blog) and wine maker Zhang Jing. And while comments on Goode’s post were not always positive, they were illuminating and useful (you can still read them: they are cached here.)

Goode gave three reasons for deleting the post. A comment from Richard Morris neatly revealed how weak they seem:

[Goode] “There were some excellent comments, but I feel we have had the discussion, and short of actually tasting the wine there is no more to say for now.”

[Morris] So why not delete all old posts?

“It got messy, and it upset people. I have no wish to upset people.”

A wine blog is always going to upset someone and so it should.

“Also, I am a Panel Chair for the International Wine Challenge, a competitor to the DWWA. So it’s probably best for me not to comment on this matter any further.”

So don’t. But why stop others?

I agree. Goode bills himself as a “journalist”, not as a PR person, and journalists sometimes upset people. And while Goode did make some suggestive comments re Decanter and its awards, that was but one of numerous issues being debated. Frankly, if I had to choose one, I would read Goode’s blog over Decanter. And the removal of this post is far more disappointing than any of the comments left on it. We need more debate,  not less, on the topic of wine and China.

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