Richard Jennings' Sense of Humor?

Please, somebody who knows him well needs to weigh in and tell me that this is a joke:

Richard Jennings ‏@RJonWine
Doing a tasting of pears–red D’Anjou, regular D’Anjou, Bosc, Bartlett and Asian–to sharpen my pear descriptors. Redirecting...

If not, I hope that he doesn’t invite any of his regular tasting group to the upcoming cat-pee smelling (various purebreds vs. alley cats from around the world). Or the camping trips, sleeping on the ground under piles of rotting leaves to sharpen his sous bois descriptors as discovered in a variety of forests, or perhaps in a pig sty, horse stall or chicken coop to sharpen his sense of that all-important barnyard smell. Or maybe I have this all wrong and all that he is really trying to do is single-handedly bring Harry & David back from bankruptcy during this holiday season.

If he is serious about this, he needs to seek professional help. Rumors abound that he does not drink much wine, that, for him, it is all about tasting, spitting,then slinging scores and handfuls of descriptors, often the same ones over and over in tasting notes that are sprayed like bullets from an Uzi (although now maybe he can serve up red d’ Anjou vs. “regular” d’ Anjou in the mix). I have no idea if that is true or not (I sincerely hope not), but the notion would be consistent with the ludicrous fetishism that “sharpening one’s pear descriptors” represents. People, it is time to tear asunder what Parker and his progeny hath wrought. Forget about the “what would Jesus do?” test. The pear tasting, if for real, would fail the “what would Neal Martin do?” test of descriptor foolishness. Hopefully Richard will show up and tell me that he just wanted to see if I would take the bait, and, of course, he would not have a pear tasting for any reason other than his sheer enjoyment of pears. If so, Richard, God bless you, you got me!

I’m sure in some way he must have a sense of humor…but this is someone who is pursuing the academic side…a bit further out of the box than the rest of us…my question is how soon do these exotic pear descriptors start showing up in his tasting notes that will be interesting to see.

Why would you discourage " sleeping on the ground under piles of rotting leaves" ?

I would not. I would definitely do it myself. If I were homeless. But not to get a better sense of “sous bois”, which seems easy enough to find in old Barolo and Burgundy!

I was once at an Oregon farmer’s market. They had a bunch of berries, black raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, and others. I lined them all up (after buying) and made notes on their tastes. I don’t remember much now, except boysenberries were more acidic and marionberries more bitter and dilute. Still, it was a useful exercise in helping to understand flavors. And, it gave me something to do as my wife and daughter shopped for jewelry.

There are myriad ways to enjoy wine and to write about it. Rather than try to understand and respect these different approaches to wine appreciation, you feel compelled to ridicule them publicly.

Moreover, most trolls are content just to let their comment do the work, but you even take the extra step of begging RJ to respond, after you’ve mocked him, said he might need therapy, and openly rumor-mongered about him. Unreal.

Hey Bill,

Lighten up.
He’s the Tastinator!
He can’t be stopped…

TTT

Me thinks both Richard and Bill have senses of humor.

After the pear tasting we can line up Bill’s posts and see if we can distinguish between the many different types of sanctimony. [wink.gif] [stirthepothal.gif]

Methinks Bill has a sense of reality on this matter!

TTT

[cheers.gif]

96-97 % agree…

Me…so far 65 % agree on sense of reality and 22-23 % on sense of humor. …

his coverage is lacking. .there’s gotta be more than 5 pear… varietals (varieties?)

David, absolutely, but I cannot participate. If I object to another lining up the pears, I cannot in good faith line up examples of my own sanctimony. But by all means, establish a committee and have at it! My only concern would be that many might feel that my sanctimony only comes in one aroma and one flavor…

And I worry that the points scale will be compressed and inflated.

So, Bill, what pear of pairs do you think RJ should serve with your whine? Or, should he pare it down to just a pair of pears?

:wink:

I suspect John is right.

I do think wine should be enjoyed as its creators intend. It is not, in my view, valid to line it up, taste, spit, evaluate and describe.I noted yesterday when reading about Soldera that he forbids spitting in his cellar and I sympathise greatly with that. If drinking a wine is going to make you too drunk then don’t drink it at all. Spitting is rather disgusting, something we tend to forget!

Me would like to know are this estate pears or purchased. Are they biodinamic or not? What is the yield per ha? Were they picked early to preserve freshness or where they late picked to cater to critics. Did they grower/estate used the consultant or not? Do they come from the side of the tree that got direct sunlight or were they shaded from the sun? Also, what was the density of tree planting?

[popcorn.gif]

Will there be backups of each pear variety to account for pear variation?