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Parker, pomposity and
Tassies 8 May 2006 Ja, I am just an ordinary ‘doppie’. So ordinary, in fact, that I only learned of Robert Parker during the last few weeks watching ‘Mondovino’ - in utter facination - on Discovery Channel. I was struck by the animosity towards Parker, especially because he did not strike me as ‘pompous’ or deserving of the vitriol heaped upon him. After a good couple of Tassenbergs, I wondered where this man's ‘ballas’ comes from - what makes him so powerful that a single comment about a wine he likes, boost sales of that wine? Surely it is because many many people follow his ratings and agree with him? It is those people - dare I call them consumers - that give Parker his ‘power’. I also stumbled over a copy of his Bordeaux book in the Kilo Shop in Tyger Valley and was struck by the shear scale of it, the dedication to produce a book of that magnitude. I am not capable of judging the book's contents, and in frustration rather bought a copy of ‘Wine’ magazine (May 2006). But then I got to page 70 and got really frustrated. So much so that I had to grab a bottle of Crackling - I like the screeching sound of screwtops. These esteemed Wine Masters are using terms such as ‘dark fruit’, ‘red fruit’, ‘palate is complex’, and ‘juicy fruit’. If you tell me a wine is ‘complex’ you are really telling me you don't know what you are tasting. If you rather tell me the wine is ‘multi-layered’, then I am beginning to grasp what you are on to. I can think of a couple of ‘dark’ or ‘red’ fruits that I have eaten, but can't you be more specific? Or, are you meaning the black/red skins of the grapes - in all its bubble and boil - have given the wine a specific taste. Why not say so? Juicy? All fruit are juicy, discounting the quince, so if you are telling me a wine is ‘juicy’, you are telling me squat. That's what I call pompous. I am sending Parker a bottle of Tassenberg to get his opinion - and I don't even like Americans.
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Response from Tim James: All sounds to me like a very healthy response to wine – if all 'ordinary doppies' were as critical and self-confident as you are as a taster, there'd be no room for Bob in the world. Nor, of course, would there if everyone was satisfied with Tassies and Crackling.... If you do want to find out more about Parker's role in the wine world, and the whys and wherefores of it, don't expect to easily find an impartial account. There's a very good (I think) recent biography of him by Elin McCoy, called The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste. It's basically on his side, but consciously demonstrates some very problematic aspects to his own procedures and personality and also to the way the wine world has appropriated him. I suspect he'd find Tassenberg a little too modest for a very high score, however.
Response from Christian Eedes As Deputy Editor of Wine magazine, I was initially delighted that Mr Smit was enticed to buy the May issue but then alarmed to learn of his frustration with the tasting nodes provided. I readily concede that a lot of wine writing is either alienating or pretentious but conversely I am often confounded how deliberately uncooperative the wine novice can be when it comes to analysing what’s in the glass. Let me address some of Mr Smit’s specific concerns. ‘Complex’ is as opposed to ‘simple’ and it is surely pedantic to suggest that ‘multi-layered’ would be a more helpful description. Describing a wine as having red as opposed to black or dark fruit is some indication of the relative ripeness at which the constituent grapes where picked: as grapes move from green to optimally ripe to dead, the flavours they exhibit change accordingly and it’s up to the individual winemaker to make a judgement call concerning when to harvest. With current obsession for fruitier style wines, grapes tend to be picked later and therefore display more dark than red fruit. As for being more specific regarding flavours, making the distinction between one type of berry and the next is too precise an exercise, at least for me. When does strawberry become raspberry become mulberry? Mr Smit is wrong to suggest that all fruit are juicy. Some are dried out and that’s the problem with so many of today’s wines in that they display a desiccated character and lack refreshment What Mr Smit’s correspondence does indicate however is that our vocabulary of taste is severely limited and I’m not sure modern wine writers try hard enough to communicate to the greater public in a relevant way. As for Mr Smit’s comments on Robert Parker, I find it ironic that those who rail against Parker often end up hugely enjoying wines that he has ordained when tasted blind.
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