There is an interesting interview by Bernard Burtschy with Robert Parker posted on Le Blog du Grand Jury – particularly interesting following Elin McCoy's presentation  on Friday at the European Wine Bloggers' Conference. The interview was originally published in L'Amateur de Bordeaux in French. Initially Bernard covers the 2009 Bordeaux vintage but then finishes by asking Parker about his views on the internet.   

The quote here gives a flavour:

'It is my experience that the more "white noise" that comes from free wine forums and blogs, the higher the amount of irrelevant, badly written, grossly incompetent, and negligent wine information is posted. If anything, the proliferation of free wine forums and blogs has actually pushed more and more people to seek out experts who do the work, who have no agenda, who study and appraise the situation fully.' 

Read the rest here.

Unlike Elin McCoy, Parker clearly believes that the internet has actually strengthened the position of 'ivory tower' critics. It would be interesting to have some hard facts on who the younger generation of wine drinkers get their wine information and advice from and who they trust. 

Incidentally I think the term 'ivory tower' can only be applied to a few critics as a number of the top wine writers spend a lot of their time visiting vineyards around the world.

See also my report on the conference here.

**

70% more wine bloggers at European conference

Written by Gemma McKenna   

Thursday, 28 October 2010

The European Wine Bloggers Conference (EWBC), held in Vienna over the weekend, attracted 70% more bloggers this year than last.

(Report on Harpers Wine & Spirit website here.)

Subtitled 'seriously good wine at remarkably fair prices' this is undoubtedly a book for our recessionary times with a selection of over 3000 wines from around the world costing no more than £20 retail.

Once again the benefits of L'Equipe Parker are clear with David Schildknecht looking after the Loire. I suspect that a book like this would not have been possible under the old set-up.

Each region/country has an introductory overview that precedes the selected wines. David calls the Loire – the 'bargain garden of France':

'The valley of the Loire River is the bargain garden of France for more than half of its 700 miles*, slopes within 20 miles of the river's shores teem with vines, some indigenous, most introduced down the centuries from all over the rest of France. From few if any other places on earth can one still harvest such affordable but distinctively delicious wines; the stylistic range is so vast that it would bewilder if it did not bewitch us. The Loire's wines generally offer forthright, generous personalities and food compatibility, while frequently harbouring a depth that reflects their historical and geologically layered origins. Even top crus from this region's leaders – including those of global wine-growing champions – remain remarkably modest in price. And there is an abundance of young talent, both homegrown and drawn from afar to this beautiful region with its outstanding, still affordable vine acreage.'

Although David rather underestimates the length of time you can enjoy well-made Muscadet – 'for up to 3 years', he is spot on regarding Loire Sauvignon Blanc: 'even more than Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc takes wicked revenge if overcropped or underripenned, displaying a hard edge and agressive scents of green pepper, asparagus, grassclippings, boxwood, or cat pee'.

I also go along with David's selection of good quality – good value producers. Naturally if I was to draw up a similar list, there might well be a few subtractions and additions but that is always the case with a selection like this.

The tasting notes are not vintage specific but are tailored to give 'a short summary of the style and character of the wine that you are likely to find in a reasonably good vintage for that region'. Consequentially there are no scores for the wines – is this the first Parker book that doesn't score!

Great Value Wines is published in the UK by DK – 497 pages are yours for £12.99 or probably less on Amazon. With over 3000 recommended wines this guide represents excellent value, particularly bearing in mind that Matt Skinner's The Juice 2010 offers only 100 wine recommendations and then he didn't taste them all. See The Listener (New Zealand) and Decanter here.

Very happy to recommend – Robert Parker's Great Value Wines.

Review here on Jim's Loire of Robert Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide 7th edition.

* Slight exaggeration the length of the Loire is normally given as 600 miles.

Francisco (Vito) Olazabal

I have added more text to the account of the first day of our visit to the Douro, although this is still work in progress.

His daughter, Luisa

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Unrelated post:

Gerry Dawes: Robert Parker on his way to see the King of Spain

Jancis Robinson and Andrew Jefford: Could these sites be banned in France and their authors arrested?

Although the French wine industry last week saw off the absurd proposal that there should a charge for all wine tastings – both professional and amateur – the war is not yet won. The legality of mentioning alcohol on the internet has still not been resolved. It seems likely that the French Parliament will make the mention of alcohol on the net legal but it may be severely circumscribed. There is an amendment from UMP Yves Bur from Alsace (Bas-Rhin) and the socialist deputy Jean-Marie Le Guen (Paris) that would restrict the mention of alcohol to only those sites run by producers or négociants.

This would mean that all wine sites run by writers/journalists, magazines, all blogging sites except those run by producers or négociants would be illegal in France. This would presumably mean that eRobertParker, the Wine Spectator, Jancis Robinson, Tom Cannavan’s Wine-Pages, Jamie Goode’s Wine Anorak etc. etc. would all be illegal in France. So, too, presumably any mention of alcohol in on-line newspapers.

'What future for wine if you can no longer talk about it?'
Good and pertinent question on a road sign in Anjou last summer
(photo from Micaela and Sue, La Grande Maison)

It would also hit other types of site, tourist sites for instance, that are likely to mention wine or spirits like Cognac, Armagnac or Calvados.

As all wine sites can be accessed in France does this mean that anybody running a wine site anywhere in the world, who is not a producer or négociant, will be breaking French law? If this is case will Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, for example, be in danger of arrest and being dragged before the French courts next time they visit France?

See also:
This wine forum thread on Tom Cannavan's wine pages
Various postings on Hervé Lalau's Chroniques Vineuses
This post and others on Wine Brands

This week there has been an interesting discussion on Tom Cannavan’s Wine-Pages entitled ‘Parker's a great wine journalist’. It illustrates the two different approaches to writing about wine.

Terroir: View from Pierre-Bise across the Layon to Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay

Here is my posting on the thread where I attempt to set out the two different approaches:

‘I'd suggest that the topic should be entitled why Robert Parker is a 'great wine writer' rather than a wine journalist. As a broad generalisation a journalist reacts and comments on current events, while a writer takes a more reflective look. I consider Hugh Johnson to be a writer, while Tim Atkin is mostly a wine journalist. Andrew Jefford and Jancis Robinson are both writers and journalists.

This thread illustrates a fundamental difference of approach that exists in those whose write or commentate about wine. Seeking a catch phrase – bottle or terroir.



Robert Parker and Malcolm Gluck, for example, see themselves as wine critics where what is in the bottle is primordial. A detailed knowledge of the soils and the personalities involved is not essential and can get in the way of an objective assessment of the wine.

The terroir approach is exemplified by Hugh Johnson, Anthony Hanson and Andrew Jefford where an understanding of the wine comes from an interest and knowledge of the area, where the vines have grown and the personalities of those who cultivated the grapes and made the wine.

I think both approaches have their strengths and both are valid. I am certainly in the terroir camp because, for me, looking at where grapes are grown and the personalities involved is fascinating. In the case of the Loire this may make me less critical of certain wines than I might be if I tasted them miles away. The 'bottle' camp would I'm sure say that I'm too emotionally attached to the Loire and its producers to be properly objective. Although I think it was James Cameron who thought that good journalism demanded some involvement. I have to leave readers to form their own judgments over whether they agree with my conclusions or not.

Tasting is extremely personal and wines and our perception of them change all the time so, for me, a tasting note is just a snapshot. I only use points/marks when I'm obliged to in wine competitions although I do use a system of ticks, crosses and question marks when tasting wine, which I'm sure wouldn't stand even the briefest scientific scrutiny.

Without gainsaying Robert Parker's considerable achievements, I think Hugh Johnson and Andrew Jefford, to mention but two, are very considerably better writers.’

Obviously Jim’s Loire is unashamedly and unapologetically ‘terroir’ driven.

Alice’s book is certainly a good read: having been given it on 30th December I finished it yesterday. It is good to read a wine book that has passionate beliefs, even if I don’t fully agree with her. It is also typical that this book was published in the US. The UK, that once had a flourishing wine book publishing scene, now sticks only to the tried and tested. Only self-publishing efforts such as Charles Metcalfe and Katherine McWhirter’s excellent The Wine and Food Lover's Guide to Portugal lighten up the depressing situation, which is likely to get even worse during 2009.

But enough rant and back to Alice. She is a keen supporter of natural and traditionally made wines and a horror of wines made by ‘spoofulation’ – from chemically ravaged vineyards, made using cultured yeasts, enzymes and aged in heavily toasted, new barriques. She believes that wine has become standardised and lays a lot of the blame at the door of Robert Parker. Hence the book’s alternative title: How I saved the world from Parkerisation.

I have a number of points of agreement with Alice. She likes to get out to the vineyards, meet the producers and hear their stories. I suspect she would be as staggered as I was by a significant UK wine journalist declaring recently that he hated visiting vineyards. Not for her the wine critic approach, adopted by Robert Parker and Malcolm Gluck, that concentrates on assessing bottles of wine and almost views visits to wine regions as a distraction. Alice has no time for marks – especially the 100-point scale. She is also a great fan of the Loire – ‘the land that Robert Parker forgot to review’.

'That was when it hit me that Parker's history of ignoring the Loire had been its salvation. Because Parker dismissed the red wines of the area, the Loire vineyards remained relatively cheap. It remains to be seen whether the Advocate's new appreciation for Loire reds will have any effect on the region or the wines' mass appeal.' This may well be partly true as it is possible had Parker championed Loire reds then prices of the most favoured sites in Saumur, Chinon, Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil might have risen. But it is highly unlikley that even Parker's most enthusiastic championing would have affected vineyard prices throughout the Loire. In any case prices vary very considerably from one part of the Loire to another: a hectare of Muscadet will not cost the same as a hectare of Sancerre.

Robert Parker has not been alone in ignoring the Loire. Few UK wine journalists and writers have bothered recently to attend the annual Salon des Vins de Loire and few are regular visitors to the region. However, the Loire does now appear to be coming back into fashion. If this is the case, it coincides with one of the smallest vintages for years – in places even smaller than 1991.

One of the funniest parts of the book is in her phone interview with Robert Parker when Robert denies that he has a ‘thin skin’. “I mean, I never commented on that woman’s book [Elin McCoy’s Parker biography, The Emperor of Wine], but the really annoying thing – that was totally untrue – she said about me is that I have a thin skin, that I don’t accept criticism, and that I go after wine writers.” One can almost imagine a roar down the phone: thin-skinned – moi!

Alice’s view is too black and white for me – lacking in nuances. Perhaps I prefer to sit on the fence more than she does. Her judgments are too sweeping. Take her rubbishing of the Salon des Vins de Loire and the overall damning of the general standard of Loire wines.

‘After experiencing such lively times at the alternative tasting (Dive Bouteille and Renaissance des Appellations), how could the dull Salon de Loire have a chance with me? At the Salon the T-shirts and tattoos of the day before were traded in for button-down shirts and sportscoats. But much worse than the formality were most of the wines. Just as at the fringe Italian tasting, most of the Dive wines were meritorious – and at the conventional Salon there was no relief. While I can point to maybe forty regional producers who make exquisite wine, there are plenty of truly bad wines made in the Loire. There are many passionless winemakers who overcrop, machine harvest, farm with chemicals, and use lab-made yeast. Unfortunately most of the 740 million gallons of wine produced in the area sucks.’

Certainly there is still poor wine made in the Loire but substantially less than there used to be. Only maybe 40 producers who make exquisite wines? Depends, I guess, on how you define exquisite, Alice, but there are many, many more who work with passion and commitment and whose wines are worth tasting and good to drink.

However, The Battle for Wine and Love is certainly a recommended read.

My review copy of the seventh edition of Robert Parker’s The Wine Buyer’s Guide arrived on Friday. Initially I thought that the courier company had delivered a brick but no it was the two-volume guide (France and then the Rest of the World) that topped my kitchen scales at 3 kilos. The flippant answer to what is the difference between the sixth and the seventh editions is that the seventh weighs another 500 grams.

A rather more serious reply is that this is the first edition which has involved the new Team Parker with some dramatic improvements in areas where Parker was previously weak. Take the Loire. Previously Robert Parker has largely ignored the Loire. His World’s Greatest Wine Estates included an embarrassingly poor and inaccurate profile of Domaine Huet. If submitted as a school essay it should have received less than 50 points. Robert also claimed that 90% of Loire wine was white – actually about 55%. The sixth edition of The Buyer’s Guide had a bare 11 pages, while the seventh treats the region to 40 pages.

Pouilly-sur-Loire: halfway down the Loire and

the start of the internationally known vineyards

David Schildknecht covers the Loire as well as Alsace, Beaujolais, Burgundy and Languedoc-Roussillon plus Austria, Germany and Central Europe for Team Parker. Clearly this is someone who knows the valley fairly well and whose general conclusions and advice I largely go along with, although I do have some quibbles. Anyway to the positives first.

David begins by stressing the great value the Loire offers. ‘It is high time wine lovers recognize it as the bargain garden of French wines. From few if any other places on Earth can one still harvest such affordable yet distinctively delicious wines, a vast stylistic and varietal range. The Loire’s wines generally offer forthright, generous vinous personalities and food compatibility while frequently harbouring a depth that reflects their historically and geologically layered origins.’ The work of several good US importers/agents such as Joe Dressner and Kermit Lynch is singled out.

He is properly critical that too much Loire wine is poor: ‘There are also copious quantities of lacklustre or flawed wines from each of the Loire’s more than 60 appellations.’

The Loire near Savigny-en-Véron

Working in from the Atlantic David highlights the value, versatility and ageability of good Muscadet, the fine dry whites of Anjou – ‘among the world’s potentially profound and ageworthy wines’ – and the sweet wines from the Coteaux-du-Layon and Coteaux de l’Aubance – ‘among the most ageworthy on earth, as well as some of the world’s great bargains’. He warns against allowing Chenin Blanc to go through a malolactic fermentation – a sentiment that Jean-Pierre Chevallier (Château de Villeneuve) and Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) would happily concur. Montlouis and the Coteaux du Loir, including Jasnières, are highlighted as particularly dynamic appellations. He rightly complains that too often it is impossible to know the style of Vouvray or Montlouis that you are buying because of the refusal of the producer to indicate on the label whether it is sec, demi-sec or moelleux.

He picks out the potential and pitfalls of both Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc and the need to pick them ripe and, preferably by hand. David is absolutely right to headline the bargains of Touraine – not just Sauvignon but also reds including Côt. ‘The handful of really successful Touraine Sauvignons are more delicious and interesting than than 75% or more of whats’ grown in Sancerre but cost half as much (and they can chase the growers of South Styria, Austria, or Marlborough, New Zealand around the globe as well).’ It is, however, a pity that guide’s sketch map of The Loire Valley and Central France omits the vineyards of the Cher Valley.

There are already some very exciting wines coming from a small but increasing number of producers in the Cher Valley with a growing recognition that there are some excellent vineyard sites, particularly around Montrichard, that are not being exploited.

David is rightly critical of the standard of some of the standard of some Sauvignon Blanc coming out of the Central Vineyards: ‘A background of high yields and widespread machine harvesting drags down the quality of many Sauvignon from the eastern Loire, and thin or underripe wines are turned out routinely even in balmy years. In Pouilly-Fumé in particular, lesser wines may exhibit an unpleasantly hard-edged combination of marginally ripe fruit, high acidity, and austere minerality.’ He is rarely a fan of producers who ‘treat” their Sauvignon from their oldest vines to ‘a stay in small, young barrels’ as ‘at the most one in five of these cuvées seems to reveal any synergy’.

The Loire not far from Rigny-Ussé

My quibbles then? They are a few straight errors – not surprising given the scope of David's responsibilities with Team Parker! Anyone looking for the Coteaux du Giennois said to be ‘well south-west of this stretch of the Loire (meaning Sancerre and Pouilly)’ will search in vain as the Coteaux du Giennois is to the north of Sancerre and Pouilly and, since its promotion to AC status, its reds have to be a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir. In Pouilly there are currently just 33 ha of Chassellas – hardly a ‘considerable amount’. As far as I know the local name for Pineau d’Aunis is Chenin Noir and not Chenin Rouge. The regulations for Bonnezeaux require that the grapes have a sugar content of 238 grams per litre not that the wine has an ‘improbable 230 grams of residual sugar’. I suppose Coteaux de Saumur could be described as ‘off-dry’ but this rather stretches the term as the regulations require the grapes have 221 grams of sugar.

I think David underestimates the ability of AC Touraine’s wines, particularly some of the reds, to age, He advises that ‘nearly all best drunk within 2/3 years of bottling’. Having enjoyed a bottle of Henry Marionnet’s Gamay Primeur 1976 only three or four years ago and many reds from the Clos Roche Blanche from various vintages between 1999 back to 1993 I find they have considerable potential to age, although I would agree that this applies only to the best producers. He is also too dismissive of present quality of Sancerre Rouge – ‘numerous pretentiously extracted and barriqued examples’. Amongst the appellation’s best and most ambitious producers there has been a revolution in the treatment of Pinot Noir in Sancerre over the past 15 years. While there may be some examples of over-extraction and over-oaking I think this is only to be expected during a time of experimentation. Furthermore thoughtful producers, like the Vacherons, are aware of this and are already making adjustments.

I’m not fully convinced by the value or worth of a rating system but many people like them and it helps to offer some order/guidance, useful in a large region like the Loire, and it is interesting to see who is included. The ratings run from five stars (excellent) to two (good).

The absence of tasting notes in the seventh edition has been commented upon on some internet wine forums. I’m no great fan of lengthy tasting notes, which rank along with drum solos and the common fly as a waste of time and spece. As there were no Loire tasting notes in the previous edition there is no change here. However, the consequent lists of wines with just scores and drinking windows are as interesting as reading a telephone directory or a loco-spotter's guide.

Unless lists of wines and their points fascinate you, there isn’t sufficient other matter to make the £60 cover price, although amazon have the hardback for £39 and the paperback for £18.24.

Robert Parker: The Wine Buyer’s Guide (7th edition), UK publisher DK, £60, 1471 pages excluding the index, hardback

Web: Robert Parker