Feature Article

Leo McCloskey talks about how wineries get high wine scores.

Wine consultant Leo McCloskey's company, Enologix, analyzes mountains of data to advise wineries about how to make high-scoring wines.
[Image courtesy of www.taste3.com]

California (State Appellation)

Leo McCloskey is against wine scores...

...but for a fee will tell you how to obtain high ones.

Part 1 of a 2-Part Series

by Alan Goldfarb
July 24, 2007

At the conclusion of a far-ranging, two-hour interview, Leo McCloskey – the man they deride for teaching winemakers how to make wine by-the-numbers in order to achieve high numbers by the critics – has this pronouncement:
“I’m against scores, but the scores have their foot on the necks of my clients.”

And here we all thought that McCloskey - the founder of the Sonoma, Ca. company Enologix that was formed to help producers “understand how ratings are good for the consumer” - was the industry’s frontman in its quest to chase ratings. More specifically, the coveted 90-plus score that Americans seem to lean on for their buying decisions, like a marionette that relies on its strings.

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