On wine and reviewing with William Kelley
The Wine series of Collector Mag was set out with the aim of introducing the compelling and vast world of wine to all our readers, including some of the most fascinating background stories of popular wineries and the many unique personalities working in wine that have shaped the way we perceive wine today. For our inaugural edition, we had the honour to interview William Kelley - the Deputy Editor of The Wine Advocate who reviews the wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne, as well as Madeira and English Sparkling Wines.
We discussed with William what drew him into a career as a wine reviewer and what it takes to make it in the field, as well as his experience as a winemaker in both Burgundy and California. We also got a glimpse into his personal wine collection and his thoughts on the latest Bordeaux vintage.
William Kelley, the Deputy Editor of The Wine Advocate
Hi William, thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions for our readers. I was trying to find a good way to describe your versatile profile of a wine reviewer, writer, and a winemaker. How would you introduce yourself to those of our readers who will get to know you through this article?
I would simply describe myself as a wine lover who makes wine and writes about it. I happen to write about it for ‘The Wine Advocate’, one of the world’s more influential Anglophone wine publications, where I cover Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne.
What is it about wine that fascinates you?
There are many things, of course, but the fact that wine is on the one hand an agricultural product, and on the other, in a sense, a cultural artefact is very appealing. On the one hand it reflects the place where it was grown, and on the other, the people and the culture that produced it. That antimony between the natural and the civilised is reflected in many wine regions, and especially Burgundy, which remains very rural and indeed a little rustic, while benefiting from amazing cultural amenities in terms of restaurants, infrastructure and so on.
Do you remember the first glass of wine that really made you change the way you perceived the wine?
The first glass of wine that really got my attention was 1955 Château Lynch Bages when I had just turned 18. I think there is a fundamental polarity in the world of wine between wines that are fruit beverages and wines that are beverages made from fruit, and that 1955 was my first contact with the latter.
A bottle of 1955 Château Lynch Bages. Courtesy of Château Lynch Bages.
How exactly did that glass of 1955 Château Lynch Bages then turn your interest in wine into a career in wine?
After that first glass, things escalated fast. I started reading everything I could about wine and joined the Oxford University Wine Circle that October as a freshman history undergraduate, a group I went on to preside over for three years while I was writing my doctoral thesis. We organized tastings every week with wineries—from Château Margaux to Ulysse Collin, from Harlan Estate to G. Rinaldi. At the same time, a family friend, the late Hugo Dunn-Meynell, introduced me to a lot of older wines from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. By the time I finished my doctorate, I was bitten pretty hard by the wine bug, so I moved to California to work the harvest. It was then that I started writing for Decanter, becoming their North America Correspondent and Burgundy reviewer. And shortly after that, I was hired by The Wine Advocate.
Having met so many outstanding and fascinating people in your career so far, has there been a figure that you perhaps looked up to or admired?
They say you should never meet your heroes, a maxim that mostly holds true in wine writing as in other fields, but I am grateful to have met Robert Parker and Michel Bettane. Parker’s legacy has become so controverted that we often forget what was, for me, his most important contribution: his willingness to disrupt traditional hierarchies and question received opinion. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, had the courage to give very high scores to, for example, wines from the Mâconnais, or to the early releases from Anselme Selosse. That took even more courage back then than it does today, but he had the courage of his convictions, and he was mostly right. Bettane I admire, not just for his broad erudition and mastery of the French language (no English wine writer today writes English as well as Bettane writes French), but for the way he followed vignerons from the ground up. He discovered Francis Egly, for example, by walking around Ambonnay and seeing whose vines were well cultivated. That boots on the ground approach is something I have been trying to bring to Anglophone wine criticism.
From your experience, what does it take to become a great wine reviewer?
A very retentive memory, significant physical stamina, an overdeveloped work ethic, and, in my view, a properly informed understanding of how wine is made. Tasting unfinished wines, an important part of the job in most cases, is a technical exercise, yet I am frequently taken aback at many wine writers’ lack of technical training. Beyond that, I think it’s also important to have a clear and direct style of communication. A tasting note shouldn’t equivocate, nor should it be obscure.
What does it mean for you to review wines for The Wine Advocate?
It’s a very visible, scrutinized platform, so comes with a certain pressure.
Is there a special routine that you follow when you taste and review wines?
Beyond my approach to tasting, which is the same with every wine, not particularly. Being wedded to a routine would be impractical for me, as I’m obliged to taste wines in all sorts of different contexts.
Do you have a certain target audience in mind when you review a wine?
Myself. I am first and foremost a wine lover, and I buy a lot of wine. I try to communicate the information I’d like to have were I not in the position to visit the winery, taste the wine, and ask all the questions myself.
From your experience, do you feel there is a difference in your style when you review wines of Burgundy, Champagne or Bordeaux?
The Bordelais think that they are masters of flattery, and sometimes to flatter me in Bordeaux, knowing that I like Burgundy, Bordelais tell me that they work “in a Burgundian style”. But in fact, I certainly try to be a champion of wines that are strongly marked by the place and tradition from which they emerge. I like Bordeaux that tastes of Bordeaux, and Burgundy that tastes of Burgundy. And I hope to approach any region I review with a deeply contextualised understanding of its wines informed by extensive tasting of older as well as more recent vintages.
What would you say is one of the more challenging aspects of your job?
The physical challenges, not much talked about, are significant. To cover 2021 Bordeaux en primeur I drove over 12,000 kilometers and visited over 650 châteaux. That also meant a lot of time away from my family. Other aspects could be challenging: tasting a lot of wines in a day, for example. But I try to mitigate those challenges: to take the same example, it’s actually quite simple to choose not to taste too many wines in a day, and just take a bit more time to finish the article. I have tended to find that, by writing rapidly, I can take longer to taste than my competitors but still publish before them.
To a lot of people wine scores and reviews are extremely important, especially for back vintages. Is there a ‘shelf life’ for a review?
A review’s utility necessarily depreciates over time, but to what extent and how quickly will depend on the review and the wine.
In your opinion, to what extent can wine reviewers today influence the success of a winery? And what does that mean in regards to the responsibility that wine reviewers may have toward the producers, winemakers, and the consumer?
The power of reviews is still immense. Have a look at the prices of Ulysse Collin’s Champagnes, or Lamy-Caillat’s white Burgundies, to single out two producers I have championed. However, the only obligation to which I’m sensible is the obligation to give a maximally informed and entirely candid opinion. Ultimately, it’s consumers who determine a review’s influence, not the reviewer.
Are there any wine trends or developments that excite you?
Viticultural innovation and improvement is impressive right now, in all three of the major regions I cover, and I am excited to see how it impacts the wines in the glass over the coming decade.
Like many others who read your reviews on The Wine Advocate, I also enjoy your content on Instagram (@wgfkelley). Where do you see wine reviewing headed in the future?
Wine reviewing remains stuck in the 1980s, producing “buyers’ guides” to wine available in a retail store near you—except that isn’t how we buy wine anymore. And while platforms proliferate, with more and more wine writers starting their own websites, all those websites are essentially offering the same product. My intuition is that consumers want to know more and more about, in a sense, less and less: they’d rather know more about the places, processes and people who produce the world’s most interesting wines than be hammered with thousands of reviews of wines that are mostly of very little interest. So at some point, wine reviewing is going to have to reflect that—or simply admit that it has become an industry service, producing shelf-talkers, and no longer works for the consumer.
With so much outstanding wine produced today, in your opinion, what makes a great wine truly great, maybe even perfect?
I could recite the usual mantra about balance, capacity to improve with age, and so on, but when talking about truly great wine, analysis is otiose. My definition of a great wine is the same as Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: I know it when I see it!
Do you collect wine yourself? If so, what are some highlights in your cellar?
Absolutely, I have a pretty substantial cellar. Highlights would be Coche-Dury back to 1979, a decent amount of Bordeaux from the 1920s (’21 Montrose, ’24 Haut-Brion, ’28 Pichon-Lalande etc), and more Rayas than I could afford at today’s prices, some choice old Champagne (Krug Private Cuvée from the 1960s in magnums). But I’m also quite happy about its eclecticism: I’ve got old Californian wines, Bandol’s Château Pradeaux back to 1969, old Maidiran, Vouvray, whites and reds from the Savoie, Jura, lots of Riesling above all from my friend Klaus-Peter Keller, and so on.
Is there still a specific wine on your bucket list that you would love to drink?
I have been lucky to check off pretty much all of my bucket list, with the exception of some of the legendary pre-phylloxera clarets. If there’s one that I’d like to drink, it would be the 1870 Lafite.
Do you ever rely on other wine critics' notes or recommendations for wines that you don’t know?
I am in the position of having met the vast majority of the other critics, so I am well-placed to choose. Briefly, I would say that I don’t trust wine recommendations from critics who don’t buy wine. That limits the field substantially.
What advice can you give inexperienced wine drinkers who look for a special wine to put in their collection or who are looking to buy a bottle for a special occasion?
Wine is a journey, not a destination, and there are no shortcuts to tasting widely, getting to know your own palate, and then charting your own course.
Next to being a wine reviewer you are also a winemaker. Beau Rivage is a small production wine that you produce with Frank Ingriselli, using a grape variety that I have recently re-discovered and absolutely love: Chenin Blanc. What made you pick that grape variety?
We were looking for organically farmed old vines in a sub-region of California where the variety was adapted to the climate: that led us to Chenin in Clarksburg. We then applied artisanal French winemaking techniques and sort of waited to see what happened. Making wine in California is interesting, in that there is much less of a matrix within which to position yourself, than in Burgundy. In Burgundy, you can see when the neighbours are picking and what they are doing, but in California, and especially in Clarksburg, you are on your own. So it’s very liberating.
2017, 2018 & 2019 Beau Rivage vintages
Are there other grapes or regions you would like to explore from a winemaker’s perspective?
Well, I also produce wine in Chambolle-Musigny, Beaune and Meursault, so that’s good for now.
How has being a winemaker influenced you as a wine critic and perhaps also as a consumer?
It has made me a much better technical taster, especially of wines in barrel. Farming some parcels in Burgundy has also helped me understand vineyards. When I visit a wine region today, I venture that I can “read” the vineyards and derive a lot of information: vineyards are no longer just pretty landscapes. I increasingly try to find my reviews on an understanding of a producer’s practices from the vine to the glass.
Finally, I have to ask this one considering that the En-Primeur campaign in Bordeaux is winding down: Are there some wines that stand out and are worth seeking out, and what do you think of the 2021 vintage in Bordeaux?
There are plenty of wines that stand out. Unfortunately, they were almost invariably too expensive, and especially given the rate of inflation, there is almost no reason to buy any of them now.