It seems impossible, but the furry Mr. Wolf has managed to reach yet another nadir - a new personal low. This time it had to do with an Irish Whiskey called "Writer's Tears". As is common knowledge the Irish love their drink, particularly their fine beer and good Irish Whiskey. So do we all - particularly on St. Patrick's Day, a day of great revelry when we're all Irish.
Ireland is also known for their great writers, who like many others from around the world found both solace and inspiration from their whiskey. Some of these include:
Hunter Thompson.
Raymond Chandler'
John Cheever,
Tennessee Williams,
Dylan Thomas,
Dorothy Parker,
Edgar Allen Poe,
Truman Capote,
Jack Kerouac,
William Faulkner,
Charles Bukowski,
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
James Joyce, and not least
Ernest Hemingway (whose prodigious intake of Daiquiris is widely celebrated and even honored).
(Credit: Upton Sinclair’s “15 Leading Heavy Drinkers of the 20th Century” (The Book of Lists)
All were heavy drinkers, to say the least. Donald W. Goodwin, MD, professor of psychiatry, states "that over 70 percent of the American writers who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature were alcoholics, including Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck." It is well known the passion of genius can have it's price.
Even in my own puny life, my best writing and free verse, mostly about lost love, were released by a good bottle of wine, and accompanied by tears and pain. It's the way it is. How many of us have found solace in a good spirit? How many of us have likewise celebrated with one? How many of us have mourned a loss and dedicated a round, or many, with a fine whiskey.
That's just life, and to do so is entirely honorable and understood.
So get to it already!
OK, OK. Seems that Mr. Wolf took great offense at "Writer's Tears" labels:
Mr. Wolf seems to pick two bones with "Writer's Tears":Front label: “I traded my tomorrows to remain in yesterday whiskey tears are falling now, each one cries another day …”
Back label: "Ireland has been blessed with great poets, and playwrights down through the centuries. However, most, if not all of our great writers suffered from writer’s block. Many sought comfort and inspiration from “The water of Life”… Whiskey. It was said that when an Irish writer cried, he cried tears of Whiskey.
Writers Tears is a salute to these great writers with a style of whiskey that was popular in Joyce’s Dublin…”
1. He as much as acuses them of plagiarism, saying of the front label: "This is remarkably similar to the lyrics of the Dierks Bentley country song called “Whiskey Tears” (“I traded my tomorrows to remain in yesterday. Whiskey tears are falling here and each one cries her name“
2. Mr. Wolf then accuses the poor distiller of promoting alcoholism, a subject he appears to kinow very well, stating "I am troubled by these statements... which seem to imply that like Ireland’s great poets and writers, we should perhaps turn to a bottle of whiskey for inspiration when life places obstacles in our path. This doesn’t fit my idea of (being) socially responsible..."
Needless to say, Mr. Wolf is no stranger to alcohol, what with reviewing close to 400 spirits in a couple years, not to mention creating many hundreds more mixed drinks. Isn't there something about glass houses?
Based on these Mr. Wolf then punishes the distiller by deducting points from his review, stating "... I decided that I could not ignore... the statements on the front and back labels. My “Afterburn” score of 4.5 (and his "Bottle" score of 2.5 (most get 4.5) hopefully does justice to those mixed feelings." The horror, the horror!
Honestly, this is just unbelievable!
Let's start with his charge of plagiarism. Mr. Wolf has been known to borrow verbiage from distiller's websites, and once again seems to do it here:
Using Mr. Wolf's own rope, his own words - in his own words - are "remarkably similar" to Writer's Tears website. How hard would it be to state "According to the distiller..."? The problem with throwing mud is that it's inevitable to get a little dirty.Writer's Tears: "Pure pot still whiskey is a type of whiskey traditionally made from a mixture of malted and unmalted barley distilled in a pot still.
Mr. Wolf: "Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey is traditionally made from a mash comprised of both malted and unmalted barley which is distilled in a pot still.
Writer's Tears: "Pure Pot still came about in 1802 as a reaction to the introduction of Tax’s by the British on Irish Malt Whiskey."
Mr. Wolf: "This style of whiskey was apparently produced as a reaction to British taxes on malted whiskey which were introduced in 1802."
Writer's Tears: "However in an effort to avoid taxes the Irish Distiller decided to use a higher percentage of unmalted barley... into the still".
Mr. Wolf: "To reduce the taxable amount on their whisky, Irish distillers began to add more unmalted barley into the distillation.
Writer's Tears: This resulted in a very different style of Whiskey and one which we have come to know as “Pure Pot Still."
Mr. Wolf: "The result was what we have come to know as Irish Pure Pot Still Whisky."
Now let's consider the matter of scoring.
I have never accepted Mr. Wolf's rather bizarre scoring system. I know of no serious reviewer who actually scores the bottle, label and cap or cork. Want to mention it? Fine. But score it? Really? As Ralfy has so well said (paraphrased) "I could care less about the bottle, it's what's inside that counts. In fact, I'm suspicious of extravagant bottles and marketing - I'd rather the money went into the product.".
It's well to keep in mind that Whiskey's Tears gifted Mr. Wolf with a full bottle of their dear product. How must they feel at what they must surely consider an unwarranted slap in the face? Most readers will take Mr. Wolf's comments as serious and insultinig rebukes. Others will think he's full of it.
If Mr. Wolf felt that strongly about Whiskey Tear's innocuous and romantic labeling, he should not have reviewed the whiskey, and should have returned it. That would be honest and fair. But to engage in the tactics he professes to despise, to toot his own holier-than-thou horn, and to indirectly promote Whiskey's Tears and himself - albeit in a backhanded way - he may be guilty of his own misguided accusations.
Is Mr. Wolf a hypocrite? Are his criticisms fair? Is his scoring justified? You decide...
