Robert Parker faces criticism, 1980s edition

Robert Parker last week. Photo courtesy Alder Yarrow

Sometimes you hear an anecdote that just has to be shared with the wine world. Such it is with Robert Parker talking about the New York Times review of his first book.*

I've decided to give the winemaker anonymity, even though he didn't ask for it. The man from Monkton might remember this incident, but it also might not matter; from his recent Orson Welles-meets-Ho Chi Minh appearance at the wine writers' symposium, it seems that he's not reading a lot of writing on wine these days, so he probably won't read this.

So the winemaker is sitting in Parker's office in Maryland, and Parker has just seen the New York Times review of his book. It's not positive. And Parker says, "How can they be so mean? Don't they know I put my heart and soul into this book?"

* (If somebody wants to search the NYT archive and find the review, I'd like to see it.)

There was more, but that's all you need to know. I have a few winemaker readers and I thought you'd enjoy reading this. 

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Does the world need a new top tier for Chianti Classico?

Europeans love classification schemes. It's not enough for a winery to make superior wine; eventually there's a push for official government recognition of it.

Last week the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium unveiled the first wines from its new top tier: Gran Selezione. It's not a tiny group of rare wines: the consortium expects 10 percent of the wines in the region to be Gran Selezione, and more than 30 different wineries have already produced one.

The motivation is obvious. Chianti Classico isn't content to battle for the $20 wine drinker; vintners there want to go after the big bucks.

This is more rare than you'd think, simply taking the top wines from a region and saying, "We'll charge more for them," and getting the government to agree. It's as if the US government sanctioned the use of "Reserve" in Kendall Jackson Vintners' Reserve Chardonnay.

The way the wines make the new top tier is unique: it's not by classified vineyards, as in Burgundy, or by amount of time in oak, as in Rioja.

World's 100 Best Types of Wine: Group D

We are voting for the world's best 100 types of wine in 11 installments; this is the fourth. Please vote for the best 9 of these 15 wines. For details on this poll, please read the introductory post Vote for the World's Best 100 Types of Wine.

Some interesting candidates this week, all capable of outstanding wines, and perhaps good motivation to try some types of wine that aren't currently in your cellar.




See the results for Group A, Group B and Group C.

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Things Domaine de la Romanée-Conti owner Aubert de Villaine says: a writing exercise

Aubert de Villaine

Many of my colleagues are currently at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in Napa Valley. In the interest of contributing to their dialogue on narrative construction as well as ethics, I offer this exercise.

This week I heard two anecdotes about Domaine de la Romanée-Conti co-owner and co-director Aubert de Villaine's recent visit to New Zealand for the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration.

1. Blair Walter, winemaker, Felton Road: "We just had a big event here, and three of the 18 bottles of DRC Echezeaux were corked. Aubert said, 'It was not good.' We had a bottle of DRC the last time he was here and it was horribly corked. He wouldn't admit it. He said, 'The wine's not showing well today.' If DRC is corked, it's no skin off his nose. He's not going to replace it."

2. Stephanie Lambert, winemaker, Amisfield: "I had an argument with Aubert de Villaine when he was here. I said I was there in Burgundy in '06, I was working the vintage, and it was raining the whole time. He said, 'No it wasn't.' But I was there. We argued outside a restaurant. He wouldn't admit it was raining."

Now, writers, here are your discussion questions.

1) Should these anecdotes be reported? If so, how should they be reported?

2) Can you construct a narrative around them? If so, what is the theme?

3) Would it influence your judgment if you thought you might never again be invited to taste a DRC wine? Should it?

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World's Best 100 Types of Wine: Group C

We are voting for the world's best 100 types of wine in 11 installments; this is the second. Please vote for the best 9 of these 15 wines. For details on this poll, please read the introductory post Vote for the World's 100 Best Types of Wine.

The list is beginning to take shape. See the results for Group A and Group B.

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Jurassic Ridge wines: Better for you than brain surgery

Lance Blumhardt

Behind the tasting-room counter at his one-man winery Jurassic Ridge, Lance Blumhardt recoiled from my botched introduction. I had heard he was a neurosurgeon. I was wrong.

"I'm a neurologist," he said. "Why does everyone think a doctor is surgeon? Why do you want to go cutting bits off of yourself every time something's wrong?"

Jurassic Ridge makes some of the most iconoclastic wines in New Zealand. Blumhardt needs two separate signs on the counter to detail all the normal winery practices he doesn't do, but that skips over his main point of distinction: long aging before release. His current-release Sauvignon Blanc is from 2010; his Syrah is from 2007.

"People in New Zealand drink their wines far too young," Blumhardt says. "The big industrial wineries promote the idea that you've got to drink it the minute it's made. Unfortunately, so much of Marlborough is owned by Constellation and Pernod-Ricard, and it's true, the industrial wines are done almost the moment they're bottled."

But after reading his sign -- no this, no that, what he calls "natural vegan wines" -- it's a surprise when he says that while he likes to use wild yeast as a starter, "then I inocluate with one of the newly available yeasts that have such great flavors." It makes him harder to categorize.

World's 100 Best Types of Wine: Group B

We are voting for the world's best 100 types of wine in 11 installments; this is the second. Please vote for the best 9 of these 15 wines. For details on this poll, please read the introductory post Vote for the World's 100 Best Types of Wine.




See the Group A results here.

Follow me on Twitter: @wblakegray and like The Gray Report on Facebook.