Flush with Success, the Sequel

[wineglut]

Okay, a rant.

I've always had a problem with Parker rating his wines by visiting a half dozen wineries each day and tasting unbottled wines from the barrel and giving them a rating. He asks to taste the wine, you pull a sample, he tastes it, writes his notes and the next thing you read a rating. Most of these wines are never again rated...this is the score.

The first problem I have with this is that Parker always gets the "best barrel". You may have two barrels of something outstanding and 20 barrels of plonk...do you show him the plonk?

The second problem is that it is not a blind tasting. Tell me he is not influenced by the winemaker he tastes with or the cellar he is standing in. That is, after all, why he is so consistent!

Third is that it corrupts the wine business.

Okay...a true story. A guy calls me last week interested in buying grapes. First thing out of his mouth is how he has hired a cult wine consultant.(BFD!) Next out of his mouth is Parker gave his first wine from the 2002 vintage a 92 (BFD!) So we talk and he finds out I have bulk Cab from 2002 sitting in new French oak for sale (for a embarrassingly high price). He's now interested in buying a dozen or more barrels of 2002 bulk Cab...price is not an object.

That is because HE ONLY MAKES ONE WINE!

Is there any confusion about what's going on here? Does anyone care? Certainly not Parker or he would buy the wines he tastes rather that taste winery supplied samples,or he would taste blind, or he would never rate a wine that could be "augmented" later.

I guess as long as the consumer gets a wine he is happy with and a score he can brag about no harm, no foul.

[Thomas]

You should sign onto the eparker.com Web site. I have but don't any longer. Too much adoration going on for a man who does what you aptly point out is a crock!

[Tastevin]

Well said Wineglut. By the way, did you sell him your Cab.? T

[winoweenie]

WG we may have to annoit you as the boards "Wine-Grouch". Our beloved Curmudgeon grumped a lot like you but no-one gets that name ever agin' round here. I've never subscribed to the Advocate and since John Tilson left his Underground Wineletter I don't subscribe to any rag. Every bottle I buy to cellar is based on track record or me sloshing the sucker over my gums. Just what we need in the valley, another " Screaming Eagle" wannabe. WW [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[Drew]

Now the other side of the coin. I do subscribe to the Advocate because there's a part of me that loves the big fruit bombs to drink without food and I've found that big Bob's palate and mine are almost identical in that respect. Must be the water here in Maryland as we only live 10 miles apart. Other than that the rest of my recs come from this board, my favorite wine haunts and my own palate through tasting, tasting, tasting!

Drew

[wineglut]

Tastevin - He's coming by tomorrow with his guru. I don't know what I'll do. If I were a man of principle I would probe what he's going to use it for and confront him.

On the other hand, I may wimp out... I could use the money.

[sedhed]

first you get the money....

[Tastevin]

Wineglut, confront him after his cheque/check clears.

[winoweenie]

Giggle all the way to the Bank!! ww

[Thomas]

yeah, wait until the check clears (that's what Tastevin meant with that cheque thing--those guys have a funny way of spelling...). Your only true measure of control is when you produce wine from the grapes you have.



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 03-06-2004).]

[wineglut]

Well, as it turns out they want to buy grapes and wine. And they don't care that I cherry pick the vineyard and cellar for myself.

We compared their Parker high points barrel lot with what they could buy and augmenting the blend would actually improve the wines quality...deeper color, richer finish while tripling the volume. They had to sell off a lot of the '02 vintage because the wine was bad.

And they want to make a long term committment and have a viticultural control clause in the contract (so they can Estate Bottle). And Price is not an issue, quality is everything to them. And we're talking 20 to 30 tons at 5500 a ton and 1200 to 2000 gallons of wine at $35.

They were slightly annoying, but they're not the devil incarnate as I had imagined. They want to make great wine and they want to make money, pure and simple.

However, while I may want to take back my rant about this specific vintner, I do stand by my rant on the issue of a critic scoring wines from the barrel.

[Thomas]

terrific--but hold onto your rant until you start billing these people...

[wineglut]

Sorry, Tastevin. Let me translate that last post.

We tasted the high point Parker wine and we found the brambleberry and bilberry odours in the wine compatible and we found the colour and flavour to be an improvement. They lamented they had to sell off a good portion of the vintage, but I told them to keep their peckers up that I would be happy to help them. But I warned them that just because I dressed in a boiler suit I this wasn’t going to be a jumble sale and that I was mean with my finances and don’t let anyone roger me. I was specific that the cheque had to clear in my deposit account before the wine could be lorried out of here.

I left it that I would give them a tinkle next week.

[Tastevin]

Wineglut, they were devils incarnate, but they are not now. Wonder why that is? Nothing to do with money I suppose! What made you think I needed the post translating? Also, the object in you posting quantities and prices was what exactly? T.

[wineglut]

Tastevin - Sorry, the translation was a stupid attempt at humor from something Foodie said. Nothing more. Obviously, it did not amuse you. Please accept my apology if I offended you. It was the last thing I intended to do.

On the basic thread I was, in fact, pointing to my own hypocrisy and the underlying motivation for it.

But I tell you, this "Critic Based Quality Metric", as it is called in the biz, is going to kill fine wine, as we knew it. It rules us all.

[wineguruchgo]

Wineglut,

When I was a distributor rep most of my customers didn't care what Parker or Laube said - yet if it was a difference between 84 pts and 96 pts, that did work in my favor.

As a buyer, I could care less. I want a wine that is going to taste like it should. Plain and simple.

Case in point - I had someone bring me in Pinot Grigio yesterday from California. It looked, smelled and tasted like Sauvignon Blanc! I kept looking at the bottle because I thought I was reading it wrong.

Sure it was a nice wine, but there was no way that my Pinot Grigio customers were going to like it! It was McManis. Anyone had it?

[Tastevin]

Hello Wineguruchgo. If it was River Junction 2002, then an American friend of mine tells me it reminded him of Sauvignon Blanc too. If that style of P.G. is widespread in the States, that may explain why it’s the fastest growing white wine there (so I’ve read somewhere)! Perhaps in the not too distant future 'you' will be making a Sancerre from S.B. grapes, or P.G. grapes, or whatever! Maybe one day there will only be one red, one white, and one pink wine, with each of them tasting the same. Are you reading this Wineglut? T.

[wondersofwine]

Wineglut.
Kudos to you for producing quality grapes and bulk wine!