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Why Domaine Huet was wrong to ban Chris Kissack

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on February 18 2014 at 07:37

The decision of Domaine Huet to ban the influential commentator Chris Kissack from tasting their wines at this years Salon des Vins de Loire which has been extensively documented in his blog Winedoctor is the latest example of a sneaking trend that wines are only made available, visits arranged, samples sent or comped meals or rooms provided in return for a ‘review’, the assumption being that review will be favourable.

A similar thing happened to me a couple of years back when I was not allowed to a tasting because I had critically reviewed - not that critically, mind you - the West London restaurant where it was held, Hedone. Jim Budd has also been banned - by Huet again.

I suppose it’s the natural outcome of the shift to citizen journalism when wine lovers, never having dreamed of becoming a writer on their favourite subject start their own blogs, are thrilled to get invitations to tastings and disinclined to bite the hand that feeds them. One blogger (not pictured in the group below) described Huet’s owner Sarah Hwang as “a dynamic charming young lady” who was "kind enough to let me bug her with a few questions on the domains" (They also own one in Tokaji.) I’m sure that’s more the style of coverage the Hwang family are looking for, presumably still smarting from the shock resignation of their highly regarded winemaker Noel Pinguet in 2012. Interestingly there are no recent reviews on the press section of their website.

Shouldn’t we all pay our own way and buy our own samples though - or get the publication we write for to pay for them? It’s an ideal solution but one few of us have the budgets or flush enough employers to make possible that given the number of wines we all taste a week.

Given the constrictions of space, most of us only write up the wines we rate rather than review a producer’s whole portfolio as Kissack does (his reviews of Huet’s wines go back to the1949 vintage) but shouldn’t a producer be grateful that someone of his specialist knowledge - a long term customer as well as a writer - devotes the time to do that?

Quite apart from the media storm the Huet debacle has caused the whole episode seems incredibly short-sighted. I’m sure far more people have read Chris’s post than would have otherwise done. He’ll buy the wines and review them anyway, I’m sure fairly although many will regard the domain less favourably on his behalf. Let’s hope it makes other producers think twice about imposing restrictions on who can taste their wines.

What do you think? Under what circumstances - if any - should a producer refuse to let a wine critic or blogger taste their wines?

Pictures taken on my own visit to Huët in October 2010.

Main image credit: jamesonf, CC BY 2.0

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Tags: Domaine Huet Winedoctor Chris Kissack tasting samples bloggers jouranlism critics, wine writers,

Comments: 3 (Add)

Jennifer Nielsen on April 3 2022 at 15:30

For Jacqueline to call anyone self-serving is a bit rich, let's leave it at that...

Fiona Beckett on March 9 2014 at 15:18

Many thanks Jacqueline for your feedback although I think it unlikely that both Jim AND Chris would have been 'self-serving' To paraphrase Lady Bracknell - "to ban one journalist may be regarded as a misfortune, to ban two smacks of over-sensitivity"

Jacqueline Friedrich on February 23 2014 at 16:01

Fiona, Have you contacted the Hwangs to ask them why they banned Kissack and Budd from their stand or are you simply taking them at their (potentially self-serving) word?
I was at the same Salon. I did not say I was going to write a review. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful tasting and interview with Jean-Bernard Berthome. Here's what I wrote about the tasting on my website:

Feb. 10, 2014: Fear not for the future of Domaine Huet!
When Noel Pinguet, Gaston Huet's son-in-law and the winemaker at the domaine for many years, retired after the 2011 harvest, some in the wine world were concerned that quality would suffer.
I knew that would not be the case after having interviewed the "new" winemaker, Jean-Bernard Berthome, who had worked beside Pinguet during the latter's entire tenure and whose parents had worked for Gaston Huet.
And tasting Berthome's wines at the 2014 Salon des Vins de Loire confirmed my confidence. There was very little to taste as Berthome harvest only 13 hl/ha in 2013 because of hail, and only 15 hl/ha in 2012 because of spring frost and mildew. But the three wines available to taste were all superb.
My coup du coeur went to the 2013 Clos du Bourg sec which had just finished fermenting. Its profile: 13 alc., 7 gms rs, 5.8 acid, it was harvested in two passes. Now usually my tasting notes are rather more detailed regarding flavors and structure and the like. For the 2013 Haut Lieu sec, for example, I was struck by how supple it was even with its vivid acidity; for the 2012 Le Mont sec, I admired the focus, the structure, the richness -- which seemed ampler than its 12.5 alc would suggest -- and its floral and pear-like notes combined with an appetizing bitterness.
But for that Clos du Bourg, well, I was simply gobsmacked. Even at this stage, with fermentation just barely finished, it exhibited grandeur, complexity, raciness. It was, in a word, sublime.

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