Life after Parker: What happens to Bordeaux?

WINE TALK
21

I think this is an excellent point. I have always felt that any and all highly rated “RP” wines were a solid investment though.
I really hope you are right about futures, as do many consumers.

I think this is a good point, but won’t they be constantly compared and scrutinized to the prior “Massiah”? Folks like Jay Miller and Mark Squires have made in to Pinatas for the BB folks out there, I think whoever would try to fill those would be worse for wear after a while.

I think this has been going on for a while, and b/c of where I work and everything, I can tell you this is alive and well. Issue is that it only drives a savvy buyer, not the superstar spender.

22

Ian, you are going to have to start working for a living instead of just quoting Parker points to your customers. neener

23

While I don’t argue that the Chateau have adjusted their winemaking to please Parker’s tastes, I also think weather plays a huge factor. I’ve seen some convincing stats that suggest Bordeaux’s wines are getting riper and more Parkerized quite simply because the average summer temps are getting significantly higher. We’re going to be more likely to see more vintages like '03 (and to a lesser extent '09) in the near future.

24

You see this in other areas, e.g. Rotten Tomatos with movies. The problems are homogeneity as things tend toward consensus, a too-specific scoring system vs the easy 5 star system RT and other group systems use and the lack of definition of what scores mean (the old “88 means Very Good”, “No, 88 means Swill!!” debate).

I also wonder whether group scoring works when people have different goals for a bottle of wine. Some want a wine that tastes good now, others want it to age for a few years, others will judge it by whether it can age a decade or two. For something like movies, though, the decision is simple and binary - should you go see it or not?

25

This is where something like “rate the rater” (a la, eBay with rate the seller) comes in to play. If someone’s 88 is swill, you can just give them an F rating (or however the system is created), and that score either gets down-weighted or nullified all together if enough people think this person’s ratings are worthless.

Jon- There is A LOT of consumer backlash amongst the savvy buyers about uncharacteristically warm years, in particular, 2003. I think 09 Bordeaux could be next on the list. The alcohol info I have heard his scary.

26

There will never be another Parker. Too many people are committed to keep another human being from ever wielding that sort of economic clout in the wine world again, especially an amateur who made it up as he went along, including the myth of his unique and outstanding palate. And I, too, would caution against shorting first-growths.

The wine public’s dependence upon anyone’s Bordeaux reviews is stupid. Look at Parker’s scores and everyone else’s since the inception of the Wine Advocate and duh!, the first-growths (and equivalents like Petrus), along with a tiny handful of super seconds are, with rare exceptions, the best wines produced in Bordeaux year after year, and will continue to be. Why? Such wines have as close as there is to terroir in Bordeaux, while many of the rest grow grapes in marsh landfill. Bordeaux is about branding and tradition, and the wines above have changed with the times while avoiding the wholesale selling out to Parker’s palate that one sees the garagiste wines and many others. In so doing, the producers have preserved and protected their brands. Parker did nothing of value except differentiating among the lesser classified growths for his audience, so that those who cannot afford to play the first-growth game can still compete for also-rans bearing the Parker seal of approval.

“My guess is the style of Bordeaux wines will not change. Why should they?” Those wines that yielded to the Emperor’s palate will also yield to the whims of the marketplace in the future, and that will not favor the perverse California Cab style that one finds in wines like the 2009 Cos and many Pavies and other St.-Emilion Bordeaux. Someone will stumble upon the idea that the world needs some Cabernet-based wines that you can actually enjoy with food, ripe but balanced, and with moderate alcohol levels. That the mailing lists of the Bryants and Harlans of the world are opening up to new buyers is not only a rejection of absurd pricing, but also of a style that has run its race

27

I bet the heir apparent is Jeff Leve. Well known and received in Bordeaux. His scores are closer to Bob’s than most others. Has anyone seen his Wine Cellar Insider (.com)? It has gotten quite comprehensive recently.

28

IMHO, average wine drinkers will like more fruit driven wines with very silky palate a la Bob. I have not yet met anyone close to perfect palate. As I stated before, “emperor has no clothes”

29

This is an interesting point. Not that movies evolve with age, but there are some that often are better with repeat viewing. If the critic expects a blockbuster that’s accessible and gets something else, a film will be panned as a “pretentious, muddled and self-indulgent mess.” If the critic wants something thought provoking, he’ll praise it as a “smart, beguiling and provocative masterpiece.” I don’t think it’s any more binary than wine. With wine it’s drink or don’t drink, with the added question of when.

A fun one to look at is Inception, going off topic a bit. It’s pretty much a slick action movie at its heart, and film snobs knock it for the Hollywood style over the top action. But then others find the metaphorical readings beyond the literal plot obtuse, and they bash it as pretentious trash. It’s a sort of Rorschach test, and often says more about the reviewer than the subject of the review.

The thing with tasting though is that critics can’t help but review a wine for its present characteristics. Yes, they’re looking at structure for aging capacity. But they are evaluating primary and secondary characteristics, not the tertiary ones that should develop with time. If the wine has great primary and secondary qualities coupled with structure, then the critics give it a big score and a long drinking window.

30

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31

Let me preface my response by saying that this is not even remotely an attack on Jeff.

As far as TWA goes, I doubt very seriously if Jeff will take over the helm. He has been working for the last few months at distancing himself from the train wreck that is TWA and Squires’ board. He has openly and frequently posted here on WB, as well as start up his own BDW centric website.

Will Jeff still be relevant in the BDX world? Sure. Will he influence people in their respective purchased of BDX? Absolutely. Will he replace RMP and be able to make or break a vintage, region or winery/chateau? I don’t think so.

Bordeaux will keep right on trucking along with or without Parker and/or Jeff IMHO.

32

Enzo,
As I said so many times, I have not met anyone who can consistently identify the first growth whether young or mature and I met many.

The question is when Lafite start to charge more or the others to charge less? Now, Lafite, Latour and the rest in demand.

33

Of course many can identify the First Growth: they just look at the label! [stirthepothal.gif] neener

It only gets tough when Rodenstockized forgeries work their way into the system.

There not much sense debating this, though. For those who follow certain producers, it is like a religion. Aside from the financial investment, there is a whole worldview invested in the primacy of several wines over all others in the world. Moreover, if no one buys these wines, the chateau owners will not be able to afford gas for their helicopters, black caviar to feed their hungry cats, and LVMH accessories to adorn their children. The world just wouldn’t be in order if these noble peasant farmers couldn’t have these basic luxuries so they might scrape by!

34

While there are RMP adorers (not so many on this board) and RMP bashers (many on this board), I still think there are very few if any critics who can match RMP’s track record on Bordeaux primeur for 30 years. How many times has he nailed a wine eP? Countless. Sure he misses wines, esp in the later years and especially wines that are monolithic in structure and polished to the nth for texture. That is time and saaviness on the part of winemakers catching up to the guy.

But it’s a lot easier to write accurate TNs on wines that have aged for 10 years. It’s easy to write TNs on wines that have wide communal or critical acclaim.

To be the first to stake a position and still be several standard deviations above norm in terms of accuracy? Good luck to all of you.

35

Well written, Faryan.

36

I am not a professional critic. I have no interest or desire to be a professional critic. It must rank high on the list for the most thankless, lonely job on the planet. My favorite part of tasting once or twice in Bordeaux is spending time with the people I like, as well as with their families. Getting to know the people that make the wines is what makes being over there fun. A professional critic would have to give up getting to know people and spending time with them.


I love wine and Bordeaux remains my favorite wine region. I have a lot of fun putting together my web site. But it is a lot more work than I imagined. I still have a few notebooks with notes to transcribe from various tastings. Doing this as a job would about as exciting as watching ice melt.

No one will replace Parker for a myriad of reasons. Most importantly, there was a barrier to entry when Bob started. Today, with almost no cost of publishing and distributing your material, anyone can share their views. My best guess is, as I mentioned earlier, futures will lose their sense of urgency. Consumers will look for simple consensus views of known critics they trust along with amateur tasters they also share commonality with.

With so many choices of opinions to read, it is possible consumers will look to numerous tasters in a narrow way. For example, one taster could be seen to have a better understanding of St. Emilion, while another might have a better feel for Margaux. It could even become vintage centric, where some tasters are seen as more reliable in cooler years, while others are better with riper vintages.

Something else to consider, few, if any tasters will taste the wide range of Bordeaux Bob does. He could easily taste over 1,000 wines in March. Not many people devote that much time, or have the juice to taste that much juice. This will hurt the small wineries that make outstanding wine from small appellations. Professional tasters will go back to the old days of focusing on Classified Growths. Not only will this be deleterious to small chateaux, but consumers seeking value wines will not be able to find them. Un rated Bordeaux wines are very hard to sell.

Barrel tasting is an art. Most people tasting look at how the sample is showing today. Newsflash, samples are made to show well. It’s not what a barrel sample is that counts. It’s what it will become that matters. Being able to prognosticate where the sample is headed is the most difficult thing for any taster to do. IMO, Bob has an amazing track record of doing that for over 30 years! Of course you can find a wine here and there that did not turn out as originally predicted, but considering he’s probably written notes on close to 10,000 barrel samples, the number of wines that did not live up to his expectations is very small. Of course if you do not agree, that is your right, but that’s my view.

FWIW, while I think Bob prefers the Medoc in 09, IMO Pomerol is the star appellation in 2009. Across the board, those wines earned my best scores.

37

I have an edit for you. Bordeaux wines should simply read “wine”. Scores have really gotten out of hand, and few consumers these will buy a wine simply b/c it’s good. I’ll be the first to admit, retailers are to blame for this, critics like Bob and WS made our jobs very easy, but now it’s getting hard to undo the mess.

And apparently slapping your own score on things these days is quite a put off to so many consumers. Sure, I have an agenda, selling wine, but I also have a reputation I want to build. Not getting very far with hocking swill for very long.

BTW, lots of good points there Jeff, especially the social aspect. I have met some wonderful people in my travels too, and would hate to give that up.

38

Well said Jeff. Very self aware.

One thing I am VERY curious to see is how things pan out for James Molesworth at the Wine Spectator. He is young with a very strong palate in the Rhone in my opinion. If he is similarly strong in Bordeaux AND if his preferences start to shape up rather differently from Parker, with the Wine Spectator as a stage, well I think James will be the heir apparent. Time will tell.

39

Eric… I think Molesworth will do well. Suckling is not everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ve tasted with him and he’s a good taster. Yet, he never moved the market, even after 20 years. It will take years for Molesworth to gain the traction Suckling did and at the end of the day, while he will fill an important niche, I do not think he stands a chance of earning the type of respect Bob has.

Also, I think The Wine Spectator is what most of the public knows. The individual reviewers are not as important. IMO, writers can be changed as they do not maintain a truly large fan base. It’s where they work, not who they are that gives them their power base. Now that Suckling is in business on his own, that theory will be put to the test. While he will make more money, I imagine the amount of people reading him, along with his ability to influence will be sharply diminished.

FWIW, while I enjoy what a few people refer to as modern wines, some of my favorite tasters remain the British merchants. I do not agree with their views on a lot of Right Bank wines, but for classified growths, their insight is often right on the money. If anyone is interested, read the notes Stephan Browett composes on Farr Vintners site. Surprisingly, while he has British tastes, he scored 09 Cos d’Estournel as being on the best wines of the vintage!

40

All very good points, Jeff.
Eric, just about to send you a pm. Please get back to me if you can this weekend, for an article …
Yours, Panos