I like Neal. He rates Sauternes and has a good palate, so I’m grateful. He’s also friendly and I think somewhat down to earth (from his writing style, hedonist’s gazette entries, and personal correspondence). I trust his palate, but I also know that young bordeaux is a strange game and that it takes experience to know where the wines will go in twenty or thirty years. I think as he builds up his knowledge he will become a formidable and welcome resource.
I’ve many issues with his recs. if I hadn’t dropped TWA this would be the last straw.
Main issue with Neal on Bdx is that he does not seem to be bothered by brett or va. YMMV.
I didn’t much agree with his Burg reviews either.
I apologize, Peter, I’m very interested in what you are saying but I am not familiar with the abbreviations or acronyms, could you spell out so I can understand?
What you are saying is very interesting to me.
Thanks
Wg
So many reasons, do you mistrust my question or motivation?
I am genuinely interested as W.A. has been an important and influential part of my life for 20+ years and it has a great deal to do with what I do.
Mr. Parker’s health is really failing him, and the cavalry has been brought in. This is going to have a profound affect on what I do, I’m genuinely interested in what people think.
Since Neal Martin came aboard W.A. I ask people I meet in France, the U.S. through-out Asia, I’m trying to learn what others think, what is going to happen?
For example the new vintage Bordeaux tasting is happening, it used to be we waited until mr. Parker released his reviews and then the Chateau would price.
And the world I dealt with would react based on those reviews. Now that is gone. I do not think in the majority of the world I work in that Neal Martin will carry much weight so I want to learn what Berserkers think.
He is a thoroughly decent and nice chap, with excellent taste in music (IMHO) and I used to broadly agree with his views on Pomerol. He writes better than most.
But I have not seen his reviews for more than five years, and since I no longer really buy Bordeaux don’t try and seek them out via merchants etc.
I think that Neal is good news.
Less likely to be impressed by top-heavy Parkerized wines.
More of a European palate, sensitive to subtlety.
Also, a good wordsmith.
But his mission is extremely difficult: to follow in Parker’s footsteps.
A clean break is impossible, compromise is necessary.
But, in this game, you can’t avoid pissing people off.
He’ll have to go his own way, and make a name for himself.
I wish him good luck in this very difficult endeavor, walkng on eggs.
I met him in New York a few years ago at a party at TCC’s [The Croatian Cuddler’s] house just after the Ebob [WB (Wineberserkers) short for the e-RobertParker wine bulletin board] debacle [WB short for the day that will live in infamy when everyone who was not a paying subscriber got kicked off Ebob with no notice and a few of us who had subscriptions left stuck around for a while and drove Squirrel (WB short for Mark Squires) crazy]. Neal seemed like a perfectly decent fellow who was nice to talk to but was unquestionably beholden to the Emperor, which made the bona fides of his commentary a bit suspect to me.
I think it is dangerous to categorize someone’s taste in a few sentences. Nonetheless, I think you will find that on average he is less enamored of large-scale wines, more likely to appreciate leaner styles of bdx, and on the whole less likely to be carried away with the exuberance of specific vintages. I bet if one cared to analyze scores, his are materially lower on the whole.
Having said all that, he has been a vocal fan of certain large scale wines, complained about certain lean bdx, and has praised some vintages to the heavens. Grain of salt on all of this.
He is also a better writer than Parker by miles, and somewhat less convinced of his place at the center of the universe. A nice unassuming guy who is fun to drink a glass with.
I of course wasn’t there when Jay met him, but I have not noticed any hesitancy to disagree with Bob. They agree more often than not, as you would imagine, but the two have very different views on specific wines.
I suspect he is a fan of Premier Cru Burgundy and has never even heard of the California grey market retailer…
Having met him a couple of times and even having a chance to site next to him for about 30 minutes at a lunch in London, I will echo, he is a very nice guy, well spoken, bright, excellent writer etc.