Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Nat Defrauds


Photo from Nat Defrauds--source unknown
Dear Splooge Estate,

I’m a gi-normous fan of Splooge Estate, but, then, who doesn’t love Splooge? I wanted to introduce myself to you, and tell you about all the benefits of joining me on “Nat Defrauds,” my award-winning website. Together, we can move a lot of Splooge.

I’ve been in the news lately, and not just from my lawsuit against those inflatable love doll manufacturers who blatantly stole my patented hair style for their own uses. Sadly, there have also been slanderous untruths published in online wine forums about Nat Defrauds, but that’s the price I pay for being one of the world’s most important wine personalities. I want you to know the charges stem from simple jealousy. Some wine writers will say that they stand on the shoulders of giants like Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker. Not me. I wipe my feet on them.

Nat Defrauds is the most important wine website on the Internet, and I am the foremost wine authority in Canada, and probably the world, if you don’t count the other countries. If you don’t believe me, here are a few quotes that easily could have been written by famous wine writers if they could get over their envy and speak from their cold, dead hearts so I wouldn’t have to fake them:

“Nat is not only one of the great palates in the wine business, she has fabulous tits.”Hugh Johnson, author of “The Story of Wine—A Tribute to Nat MacLean”

“I urge everyone to carefully read everything Nat has to say about wine. She’s the foremost authority on the subject, and should win every award, especially for her fabulous hooters.”Jancis Robinson, author of “Vines, Grapes, Wines and Nat”

“The 100-Point-Scale was Nat’s idea…I learned almost everything I know about wine at Nat’s feet…though her boobs are even nicer.”Robert Parker, author of “The World’s Great Wine Estates and What They Owe to Nat.”

I’m almost embarrassed to repeat those quotes, but you can see for yourself that they’re real. And notice that I gave full attribution, though my jealous wine critics claim I’m not that good at it.

Now that you know who I am, I know you’ll want me to talk about your wonderful Splooge Estate wines on Nat Defrauds! Let me tell you a little bit more about my site, and how it’s designed to show your wines in the brightest light.

My site has a gi-normous data base of my wine reviews. I have some of the finest wine reviewers in the world writing for my site, and they all work for me for FREE! That’s how loved and respected I am. (“Nat is the most loved and respected wine writer alive, and what knockers!”Eric Asimov, author of “How to Love Wine, and Nat’s Knockers”) I collect their reviews from the special Nat Defrauds Cloud that Google has designed specially for me, cut and paste them on my site, and, Bingo, eh (as we Canadians say), the most authoritative collection of wine reviews on the planet! I do make certain to give credit where credit is due, though. Each review is clearly initialed so that my subscribers know the source. I’ve created what I think is a perfect system—really, the initials are so obvious to anyone who knows anything about wine! Here are some examples:

FB/FD—Fat Boy with Flatulent Dog (So obvious it’s a Wine Advocate review)
TOMW—Tired Old Master of Wine (Sorry, Jancis, somebody has to say it)
RAD—Rabid Australian Dingo (My love handle for James Halliday)

I’m all about transparency! (“Nat Defrauds is all about transparency—you should see her gazongas in lingerie!”Paul Lukacs, author of “Inventing Wine—How Nat Did It”) I’m not sure how any of my subscribers could be confused about who writes the reviews on my website, except, of course, that they’re mostly Canadian.

I know you’re very anxious at this point to see Splooge Estate wines featured on Nat Defrauds. And that’s why I’m writing. Yes, I could purchase your wines and review them in a very objective manner, but what good would that do either of us? I’ve made it much simpler for a fine winery such as Splooge Estate to get reviewed on Nat Defrauds. It’s easy as 1-2-3.

1. Go to my website, www.natdefrauds.fuckethics.ca, and become a subscriber. It’s only $2/month, far less than you’d pay for buying a meal for a sommelier, or the price of entering a worthless wine competition. Make sure and leave a valid credit card number! Fair warning: I hate people who use stolen credit card numbers—stealing numbers is just wrong. Unless it’s from chumps like BurgHound!

2. Send me your fabulous Splooge Estate wines. DO NOT SKIP #1! Of course, the only way to get my shipping address is by subscribing, it’s behind the pay wall, which is also where I store my integrity.

3. Get ready for your website to light up with hits and orders from my 128,000 subscribers. (“Nat Defaults has 128,000 subscribers!”Marvin Shanken, editor of Wine Spectator, and Nat Aficionado”) When the Best Wine Writer in the World says put some Splooge in your mouth, people eat it up!

I look forward to hearing from you right after I see that your subscription to Nat Defrauds has been activated. Don’t confuse this with pay to play. It’s entirely ethical. Ask yourself this, if it weren’t ethical would the Best Wine Writer in the World be able to do it? If it weren’t ethical could it even be on the Internet? Send me the money and the wine and let me worry about what’s ethical.

And please feel free to forward this informative and entertaining letter to any of your friends and fellow winery owners. There’s only so much time in the day for the Greatest Wine Writer Who Ever Lived, and there’s one of you born every minute.



58 comments:

  1. Thanks Ron...
    Should you want to pass this along, here are the current defining URLs re: Natalie MacLean

    http://palatepress.com/2012/12/wine/content-theft/

    http://palatepress.com/2012/12/wine/pay-for-play-wine-writing/

    http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/530726/natalie-maclean-what-i-am-doing-is-legal-and-right

    http://thejosephreport.blogspot.ca/2012/12/pay-to-play.html

    http://blog.wblakegray.com/2012/12/natalie-maclean-should-pay.html

    http://winediarist.com/worlds-best-wine-writer-busted/

    http://www.vinography.com/archives/2012/12/the_soap_opera_of_wine.html

    http://vinquebec.com/node/10489

    http://winehiker.posterous.com/the-hyprocrisy-of-natalie-maclean

    http://www.ambitonline.com/nextrelease/2012/12/wine-writers-behaving-badly-the-natalie-maclean-story/

    http://intoxreport.com/2012/12/23/maclean-is-macdirty-i-have-your-hack-back-natalie/

    http://blog.wblakegray.com/2012/12/natalie-maclean-tells-lie.html

    Twitter hashtag #natnabbed

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  2. Corrections: the monthly fee has already been increased to $2.10 (cost of living increase, which seems to be everywhere in Canada) and she now has just under 150,000 members.

    I think there are only 150,000 people in the whole world who drink wine, so she must have them all except for stragglers in Montana or Utah.

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  3. Dean,
    I thought the ten cent increase was to cover the rising cost of emails.

    I confess that I am a huge fan of people who continue to dig their own grave. Wondrous comedy.

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  4. You left out "Vino Nataliano - The Regional Wines of Toronto"; "The Nat Bible" and "Nat (Copies) Kramer On Wine" – but you have certainly captured her bra-zen pose (I mean prose). Rock on Señor Hose!

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  5. Paul,
    That Nat is nothing if not prolific! She has a stable of amazing wine writers churning out tome after tome for her, just like James Patterson! And she pays about the same.

    I received so many links and requests about this when Palate Press broke the story. (I make fun of Palate Press all the time, but in this case they certainly deserve the credit.) It's flattering that people want to read my take on these sorts of scandals. I guess.

    Natalie, and I have never met her or read her work, has made the cardinal sin when scandal strikes. Instead of simply confessing and asking forgiveness, she's continued to dissemble and lie and try to cover her tracks. She's given a black eye to everyone who cares about wine journalism, and I just hope that sooner rather than later she just goes away.

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  6. Jugs of wine. That would be a great web site wouldn't it?

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  7. Not only is she getting free content from the internet, she's getting free advertising, too!

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  8. Lovely stuff, Ron. The hair thing is all too funny.

    On a serious note, I am surprised at how long it took for the blog world to figure her out.

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  9. Quizicat,
    I think that's 1WineDoody's column on Playboy.com.

    John,
    There is great truth in the old show biz adage, "It doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they talk about you, and spell your name right." In some ways, it's all hooey, all lightning and no thunder. For a great take on it, refer to Chris Kassel's post on his blog, "MacLean is MacDirty??..." Very funny stuff.

    Thomas,
    When I saw her photo and that joke came to me, I knew I had to write the post just to use that joke.

    I think the blog world didn't figure her out because no one really cared. She wasn't worth the effort. She's still not, but, hell, it gives Poodles something to bark about.

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  10. Once had the misfortune of reading her first book and it was so fucking bad I shudder to think how bad her website is.. almost ashamed to be a fellow Canuck..but what the hell, there's dickheads everywhere..

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  11. Yeah, the hair bit killed me. I really had no idea who this woman was, mostly because I don't deal in critics in general but after all the buzzing about her I was reminded that I was once on some mailing list of hers and after reading....well, snorting and skimming...an article she did on Lonely Hearts and Chocolates and Wine Pairings, or some such bullshit, I put her on the, "Pay No Attention to This Asshat" list, the same one I put Gary V on when he pulled that breakfast cereal and wine pairing stunt. But now I must confess, kinda jealous of all the attention she's getting for her rack! Thought that was going to be my claim to fame in the wine business...

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  12. Napadavid,
    Speaking!
    You know, I almost did a blind book review of one of her books instead of this letter to Splooge Estate. But I decided I liked this premise better. I can only imagine how dreadful her book must be.

    My Gorgeous Samantha,
    Your rack rules!
    I also recall a time when I was getting unsolicited emails from her asking me to read her blog and subscribe to her newsletter--that must have been four or five years ago. She struck me as the worst kind of imbecilic wine wannabe so I always ignored her. One has to admire her ruthlessness and ambition and amazing powers of denial. She should have been in politics.

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  13. Politics? In Canada? Are you nuts? USA maybe .. Not here .. we've got the good guys, the socialists, the red tories, the liberals.

    We've got a national pension plan that works, socialized medicine, higher taxes (but who cares, it is only money). I do regret that we are not Sweden, cradle to grave and all that...

    Politics? We can deport her to the USA -- you do something with her, maybe she can run in Montana.

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  14. I agree with Thomas on the hair thing. Always amused the heck out of me. I love that you did a post on Nat-Gate! The Splooge Estate solicitation is perfect!

    Hope the river isn't running through anything it's not supposed to in your neck of the woods...

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  15. Ooops! Sorry. That should be "Nat-eh?" instead of "Nat-Gate" considering which side of the border she's on.

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  16. You have all shattered my ambition to someday be a pay-to-play wine reviewer with nice boobies. Thank you, what do I do now?

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  17. Ron,

    I remember those emails, which was about the time I figured out her game. (If mail is both singular and plural, why isn't email handled that way? Sorry, I get caught up in deep philosophical thinking every so often.)

    Someone gave me Nat's book as a gift. Stopped reading it after the first or second chapter. By pure coincidence, I have since neither seen nor spoken with the person who gave me the book. But then, Nat was always better at piano and song.

    Tell Dean that if he were Sweden he wouldn't have a border buddy nearly as funny as us to ridicule.

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  18. Dean,
    I'm clearly "nuts."
    We'd take her but we're too busy trying to deport Piers Morgan. You keep her.

    Marcia,
    Oh you know me, I try to work good old Splooge into every post. Though it just seems right with good ol' Nat.

    It has been a nasty December here. It rained all day yesterday. So far no harm, just kinda sick of the wetness. But more this weekend...

    Rogue Wino,
    When you think about it, the real pay-to-play wine reviewer with nice boobies was Jay Miller.

    Thomas,
    Next time I'm at a book store I'm going to pick up her book at the remainder table and read a few chapters. I won't buy it, but I'll send a few bucks to Jancis to make up for it.

    I'm speechless at your deep thoughts a day after Christmas.

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  19. Ron - How dare you say these things about the pride of Canadian wine writing! Imaginative wine drinkers worldwide are sure to flock for her new book ‘Bend Over and Take It like a good Blogger should.” There’s a great picture of me gritting my teeth on the back cover btw.

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  20. We'll gladly trade you Natalie MacLean for Piers Morgan. They can walk across the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls -- like in all those spy movies. But any shooting will be done with oak corks.

    BTW, check out Twitter #natnabbed -- you're all over it, you should have had mounds of new traffic, new readers...Capitalize on it !!!

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  21. Tyler,
    Oh good, another book by Nat I won't read. Man, I'm suddenly surrounded by Canadians. Hey, isn't it Boxing Day? Don't you guys have some sort of special meal to deal with? Box lunches, or whatever?

    Dean,
    Yeah, capitalize on it, like charge $2/month for this crap?

    Maybe we should have Nat tried by a jury of Piers.

    Sorry.

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  22. Ron,

    You shoot so low. It should be $2.10 a month.

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  23. Pendock of South Africa (the Rhodes of Winedesia) http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/pendock/2012/12/27/the-passion-of-natalie-maclean/
    weighs in with "crucifiction" in a reference to the Hosemaster site...A portmanteau word = crucifying and fiction.

    Nice job Ron: now you are also a wordgenerator!!!

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  24. Dean,
    Hmmm. I agree "crucifiction" is a clever word. And I'm amazed, to be truthful, that somehow Mr. Pendock came across my nonsense. His short post takes her side. Or, rather, says that all the criticism leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

    I don't know, Dean, you're the journalism prof, is there a way to defend her journalistic efforts? Mr. Pendock conveniently doesn't mention the pay for play aspect of her blog, or her reputation for using fake names to comment on herself in other venues. Convenient for his gallant argument. And I like how the fact that it's Christmas means we should just turn the other cheek. Gack.

    But leaving a bad taste? I guess my job is done here.

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  25. Man, I haven't cared enough to read too much about this crud but she uses fake names to comment about herself?! Dude, the is just pathetic, almost enough to make me feel sorry for her but seeing as I do believe in journalistic integrity, (which is why I aint no journalist) I simply can't. Don't care what time of year it is what she did was wrong and she needs to not only be called out on it but deserves any and all backlash that comes along with it. Period. Now about that taste in the mouth business...

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  26. Ron, I try to be unbiased ... as much as I can ... I had to search long and hard for this kind of balance re: Gnat...

    It will reflect better on me at the litigation trial...

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  27. I'm a boob buy and am offended that you would suggest her jugs (of wine) would be worth my time. They are probably fake!

    I laughed so hard reading this post. It sucks that Nat is trying so hard to cover up a mess in order to stay afloat. She did it all and got caught. Saying sorry, fixing the issue and compensating the offended is the only honorable step. I guess she doesn't have that either.

    Happy New Year!

    Jason

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  28. Every time you write a new piece these days, I think you've totally outdone yourself. This one absolutely takes the cake! Well done, sir. (slow clap) Well done.

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  29. I can't stop laughing. I am going to bookmark this for the future, when I am sad or depressed and need a pick-me-up. This might be almost as good as wine.

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  30. My Gorgeous Samantha,
    I think the underlying story here is the amazing amount of ill will Ms. MacLean seems to have generated that is now turning into a shit storm for her. I can't say she has been on my radar at all the past few years, but then when all this brouhaha began and link after link overflowed with accusations of her bad and unethical behavior, I was amazed at the amount of animosity that was directed at her by people who know her or had communications with her. She comes off as a very cold and calculating woman only out for her personal financial gain. I think I'm in love.

    Dean,
    It's not the searching long that bothers me, but the searching hard... That has to chap.

    Jason,
    Most folks in her position tend to fall in love with their own image of themselves, so to confess to unethical and heartless behavior is more than they can manage. Her fans will continue to support her, and tell her she's being persecuted for no reason, and she'll choose to believe that. It doesn't matter to me, really, except as the best sort of comedy.

    Raelinn,
    Thank you, that's very kind. I also get called moronic and sophomoric and far worse things. Goes with the territory.

    I'd add, not in response to your kindness, but just in passing, that ribaldry and sexual innuendo are a traditional part of the Fool repertoire. It serves a purpose, brings the subject down to a more profane level. So my jibes about tits and love dolls aren't just there to shock or be a potty mouth, but because, in this case, it serves the purpose of the satire.

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  31. Well played, HMW, well played!

    Also, the PB column is Wine Jugs, okay?

    And I plan on quoting some of Nat's reviews there soon... as soon as I can determine which ones are really hers, I mean!

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  32. Travelingwinechick,
    Well, I hope you're not sad or depressed any time soon. Thank you so much for the kind words. I really do write this just to make folks laugh, so it's nice to hear that now and then I succeed.

    1WineDoody,
    Hey, you might get lucky and post one of her reviews that you originally wrote! How cool would that be?

    Thanks, Joe, it's been a really easy year to be a satirist. Nat was like a Christmas gift from the wine and comedy gods for me.

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  33. This post was one of the best HoseMaster ever produced. Dripping with sarcasm (and boobs) it flowed effortlessly into proper puns (and big buns) after which, it smacked hard (and upstanding firm) with wit and witlessness.CO

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  34. I don't know how to tell you this, Ron, but I just watched a video of Nat and then one of you, and she's definitely better looking . . . but only marginally. And her joke about people who drink cheap wine just to get their tongues wet is way funnier than anything here, including the one about crotchless Old Vines Zin from the Victoria's Secret Wine Club that "smells like punt"! That said, I'd still pay to read HMW too.

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  35. Thomas,
    What, no score? I had to read that worthless description and then there's no Happy Ending? And, I'm afraid to ask what CO stands for. Though I should probably know.

    Art,
    You seem to have horrible taste in both people's appearances and jokes. So you fit right in here.

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  36. Ron,

    CO was a reference to one of the complaints about Ms. DeFrauds. The reviews she puts on her site (for a fee) are reported to have been direct copies of reviews written by others and posted on the Canadian Liquor Control Board buying guide. The initial at the end of each review is supposed to be her way of attributing who wrote the review.

    Easy enough, except that the initials aren't exactly identifiers and therefore, they aren't exactly attribution. The claim is that there's a directory somewhere (no one can get her to say where it is) that cross references the initials with names, as if it would have been much more difficult to list the name instead of just the initials.

    The fact that you did not know who CO is kind of makes the point...I have a list that cross references the initials with names, but I am not going to tell you where it is.

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  37. I met her a few times anonymously, she is so full of it, all I hate of the wine industry, even her site looks like Purple pages.

    First time I meet her I knew she was a fraud. She try to play like the big leagues, people working with her were really unsatisfied and taught they were getting a fast track to wine world. I would not be surprised if she also integrated some story in her (Boring 1st book) "borrowed" from some fellows. She is so full of herself that her hair inflated with time (There was no more room in her head anymore).

    I had stomach cramp reading your view and comment..... Have you watch her little promo film on her book? This lady is such a loser.

    here is some suggested titles for her future book:

    Cut & paste, wine in the fast lane.
    when drops of god hits the fan.
    Look, me, drunken wherever.
    A journey trough my wines reading.
    Eh, Canada! what wine would you like, i'll tell you!

    Songs to go with it:
    Red red Whine.... bitch
    Nat the long nose reindeer!

    My grand-mother who taught me wine from age 5 always told me, Culture is like peanut butter, When you nearly have none you have to spread it!

    I guess she has spilled her glass of wine and will be struck by the GRAPES of wrath.....

    I would describe her like a wine

    The look is really tired, the depth of her colored comments are very light but unlike any other wine it is with accumulation of age that she gets more austere and opaque

    On the nose she will never be, because she has no opinion of her own, smells fishy and sour.

    The sensation in the mouth is very hot, it burns, lots of fruits to show but monolithic, sour edges, no evolution at all and boring on the mid palate..... long sour aftertaste that tend to dissapear so quickly, fast...like the taste hides in the back of our throats...

    Cheap Bargain...... surely cheap....but ain't no bargain.




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  38. The French certainly have a way with words...

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  39. Thomas,
    Yeah, I got all that. I referenced the initials in my stupid post. I just thought you actually had something in mind with CO, like Carbon Monoxide, which she may be inhaling in her garage this very minute.

    Martin,
    Is having a stomach cramp from my post a good or a bad thing? I'm hoping it was from laughing.

    Well, you've certainly proven my point that Ms. MacLean has created a lot of ill will in her wine career.

    Dean,
    English is my third language too. The first two are sign and Pig Latin.

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  40. Dean - terribly sorry if I have offended you. In what way are you saying This.

    HMW - Yes from laughing of course,

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  41. Martin, I meant it as a compliment...

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  42. Martin is French?

    Mais, il parle un anglais parfait, no? C'est tout dans le plaisir, mon ami.

    Hope I got that right.CI

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  43. Dean - Yes thank you, I figured it was menat as so.....

    Ron - Your French is as well perfect as mine.....

    Today is my birthday! I will be drinking a glass and raise it to all of you! I just love the wine community that raise their glass to the grape juice it is..... and not to the fraudulent wanna be out there, wine should be respected nor worshiped by a small elitist group of pompous people.

    In my own opinion only the producers can have the right to talk about their wine with the pride of accomplishment!

    My B'day treat today:

    Champagne Salon
    Custoza, Monte del Fra, Ca del Magro
    Chianti Classico, Podere Poggio Scalette
    Valle Alta della greve, Il Carbonaione, Podere poggio scalette
    Barolo, Vigna rionda, Massolino
    Barolo, Parafada, Massolino

    and, drumroll.......... please........
    Haut-Brion 1970........ my B'day.......

    With friends...... and no phony description at the table...... only fun gathering!

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  44. Martin,
    Happy Birthday! Hope that '70 Haut-Brion isn't directly from an Acker Merrill auction...it may taste suspiciously like Mouton Cadet.

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  45. 1970 Haut-Brion? Did they make wine that far back in history?

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  46. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  47. Ron, you have apparently been found out with the extra exposure Nat brings...

    For $2.10 a month, she will send you all the spam you can manage.

    She`s that powerful: she charges for spam...You have just a free sample...

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  48. Dean,
    Blogger is actually damned good at catching Spam, which is why I don't need any verification gizmos for comments. Once in a while, one slips through. I deleted it, as I would delete and Natspam.

    This post has been all over the place, all over Twitter and other social media sites. I guess folks are starved for even less than adequate satire. Lucky for me.

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  49. Nat`s problems have finally hit the print world back home --

    http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1309056–online-wine-writer-feels-wrath-of-grape-lover

    and

    http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=7761638&sponsor=

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  50. No one commenting on Nat-Gate, to my knowledge, has asked this question yet:

    Does the Canadian Liquor Control Board have permission to quote all these wine critics verbatim? And can us regular wine folks subscribe to the CLCB? Who needs to read third hand reviews when second hand will do?

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  51. Chicago Pinot,
    Beats me. I'll leave that to Dean if he's still around. But it's always fine to quote critical reviews with proper attribution--that's not plagiarism or unethical. And I'm sure you can probably get the LCBO notes, but it might be even duller reading than the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, which has been known to cause comas in laboratory squirrels.

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  52. Holy record comments, batman.

    Nat's been digging herself a hole since she started.

    This is classic,
    "When you think about it, the real pay-to-play wine reviewer with nice boobies was Jay Miller."

    Love it Hose.
    EVO

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  53. Chicago Pinot - There is no canadian Liquor Board because all of the regulation on alcohol is a provincial premise and not federal regulation. And yes if used with the proper mentions it is totally legal and of course makes publicity to the writer, magazine and the wine itself.

    We have to see it as a promotional tool.

    But when I give classes or write I always command to trust your own taste......

    I will share with all of you now my own scoring notes submitted once to a group of wanna be, given my reputation in Montreal it was received well but not used! I wonder why?

    here it is.....
    Scoring was based on 10 points X by ten and you have a scale by hundreds, divide by 5 and wow here is a star system!

    1 - Extremely good.... for unclogging toilet plumbing.
    2 - Best to avoid
    3 - Plunk from a mass producer
    4 - Winemaker must have been sleeping
    5 - Average everyday no fuss, sauce will be fine
    6 - Mother in law likes it
    7 - Share with friends that do not know about wine
    8 - Special occasion (you would drink it alone) or share on big occasion with noteworthy people
    9 - Very special occasion (but drink it alone because you are special)
    10 - FU all this one is for me (you drink it alone, even if you have invited any people in the same local area you are standing)

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  54. The provincial Liquor Control Board of Ontario puts out a bi-weekly (that's twice a month, folks) catalogue of new wines available for sale in Ontario. Each wine is given a tasting note, about equally split between an LCBO committee tasting panel (called Vintages Panel) and a named reviewer. The policy of the LCBO is to reprint (having requested a blanket permission) the review in its entirety, not just a few words or a number as a movie ad would carry. Thus, a review from Robert Parker would state whatever he wrote, his rating, his name, a date for the review, and a source in print on on the web. There are about 50 of these an issue, maybe 100 a month. What Natalie MacLean did was to cut and paste ALL of those reviews that were appropriate for her recommended wines. These reviews (including the in-house Vintages Panel) would be added to her database as "More Reviews", and attributed to initials reflecting the name of the original writer. Jancis Robinson was JRO (someone else was JR), Robert Parker was RP. There was NO date, no full name, no source or URL, nada -- just initials. She defended her reprint actions by quoting "fair use" of the reviews. She defended her lack of proper attribution by using initials keyed to a directory-legend-index, which was later found to be non-existent -- a figment of her imagination, brought out only in order to justify what she did. Or else, she's delusional. Shall I go on?

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  55. Addendum: the LCBO unleashes about 120 wines an issue, 240 a month. The other reviews from non-writers is from the Vintages Panel, which Nat has abbreviated VP. Whoever VP is, he sure reviews a lot of wine!!

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  56. Hey EVO!
    Thanks. I did once have a post that went over 100 comments, but that was long ago in a galaxy far, far away. As I said, 2012 in wine was the Year of the Boobs. Rudy fits in there too somewhere.

    Martin,
    Interesting scale, and, as you note, awarding a perfect score is, to the average consumer, tantamount to a big FU. But that would seem like encouragement to give them more often...

    Dean,
    And our country is fucked up? We don't have an LCBO to tell us what to buy. Oh, wait, worse--we have Wilfred Wong, and the woman at Costco who thinks wine is toilet paper. Never mind.

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  57. Eric V. Orange said...

    This is classic, "When you think about it, the real pay-to-play wine reviewer with nice boobies was Jay Miller."

    The uptick in the subscription rate for Nat NoSoMaClean's website was due to the cost of purchasing from Dr. Jay Miller the framed copy of Pancho Campo's MW certificate, which Campo had given to Miller as a token of his appreciation for allowing himself to be used as tool for milking money from Spanish D.O.s and wineries. This is beginning to resemble a big hooters' clusterf-ck.

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  58. Gerry,
    A big hooters clusterfuck? If only...

    The real question is, is an M.W. worth $2.10/month?

    Thanks for dropping by. Becoming an annual visit!

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