A Week In The Life Of RP...

[David_K_o_l_i_n]

I disagree, Greg. Not so much with your observations, but rather your conclusion. I find Bob’s notes quite useful. Will they match my descriptions of a particular bottle at a particular point in time. Probably not. Nor does his palate preferences match mine. But his impressions aren’t random (rather, I find them pretty consistent) and I think he does a pretty remarkable job given the sheer volume of wines that he tastes

[TomHill]

@Rick Gregory

I’m with Fleming. WTF is it with the ellipsis and RP?

Agree…their usage makes the thing difficult/problematic/impossible/tough/painful/excruciating to read!!!
Tom

[G_D_y_e_r]

@David K o l i n

I disagree, Greg. Not so much with your observations, but rather your conclusion. I find Bob’s notes quite useful. Will they match my descriptions of a particular bottle at a particular point in time. Probably not. Nor does his palate preferences match mine. But his impressions aren’t random (rather, I find them pretty consistant) and I think he does a pretty remarkable job given the sheer volume of wines that he tastes

I agree, the notes aren’t random, though tasting important properties non-blind no doubt helps in that respect. Based on RP’s description, it looks like he visits certain producers to taste in their cellar, while other wines are lumped into big tastings based on region or consulting winemaker. All of these factors should help anchor the descriptions based on experience.

Anyway, the notes do provide useful info despite the methodological limitations. But you are using them in a very sensible way–reading them for the descriptors and structural clues. There are definitely certain qualities that are more obvious than others, and a trained critic will get those quickly. People using the notes as a ranking are taking a less sensible approach.

[Peter_Cargasacchi]

@Ian Brand

@Peter Cargasacchi

No Roman orgies?

Yes, that does sound like work. I would probably be drunk by noon, have a huge lunch, then take an afternoon nap, have some more tastings, get drunk again, followed up by a huge dinner and

The best part of a siesta is the ability to get drunk twice in a day.

As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve found that I have to limit myself to only one orgy per day. Also, if I go to an orgy during the middle of the day, I’m basically wrecked for the rest of the day. I honestly feel that my productivity suffers.

[Paul_Jaouen]

@Rick Gregory

RP’s schedule isn’t that different from most top US critics. Tanzer maintains a similar schedule for one.

How do you know Tanzer’s schedule? Has he ever written about it?

[Jeb_Dunnuck]

It is absolutely hard and exhaustive work.

[Evan_Dawson]

@G. D y e r

@Gordon Fitz

No one can possibly run a sub 4 minute mile, but they do! “No one” can surely not do a lot of things but a few people can and do. I would be very careful saying that no one can do this or that because you or your friends can’t. There are always people of extensive training, experience, and extreme motivation that can do a lot of things we mere mortals find impossible.

I personally won’t want his schedule, but I’m glad someone does the heavy lifting!

Let’s suppose this is true, that RP is the world’s greatest power taster, the tasting equivalent of Adrian Peterson, Lebron James and Adrian Bolt inside of a tongue. Then how relevant are his perceptions to mere mortals who are consuming wines in a completely different context? Think about it–his palate does not fatigue after hundreds of pours of big wines, whereas most people tire of a ponderous wine after half a glass. Either way you look at it, I see it as a no-win situation for prolific critics. They will fatigue, or if they don’t they aren’t representative of their buyers, that is unless the points are what people are buying, which is true to some extent.

Even if RP has a photographic palate, though, each taste is only a snapshot in time. There’s pretty broad agreement that perception of a wine changes as it’s allowed to open. Whether that’s the wine or the taster is open to debate. A photograph only tells you one moment in time, even if it’s perfectly rendered. RP may do what he does at a very high level, but the methodology has inherent limitations.

To return to the 4 minute mile analogy, that runner is trained for a specific distance. As a sprinter or marathoner, he is probably ill equipped. As an athlete in a more complicated sport like soccer, he is probably terrible even if he has speed and stamina. Indeed, RP may be a ultra-marathoner as tasters go, but that is a very narrow skill set with narrow applications. If you drink many wines in a sitting in small pours, then RP notes are well-suited for you in my opinion. Otherwise, not so much.

Yes.

[Rick_Gregory]

@Paul Jaouen

@Rick Gregory

RP’s schedule isn’t that different from most top US critics. Tanzer maintains a similar schedule for one.

How do you know Tanzer’s schedule? Has he ever written about it?

I know people who’ve tasted with him. They don’t talk about what he’s said about the various wines (quite appropriately) but the number of wines within a few days isn’t a state secret. And one year I followed him by a week in Burgundy and chatted with some winemakers about how much he was tasting and how long he was there. I don’t think any of this is surprising - are any of you really under the impression that critics taste 5-10 wines a day and spend weeks in a region? Really? Come on.

[Bill_Johnstone]

@Jeb Dunnuck

It is absolutely hard and exhaustive work.

It does not sound fun and seems that potentially it could make you drink beer, bourbon or anything but wine when not working.

[Paul_Jaouen]

@Rick Gregory

are any of you really under the impression that critics taste 5-10 wines a day and spend weeks in a region? Really? Come on.

Nope but then I also don’t think most taste 150 to 200 wines for 10 straight days.

[Peter_Kleban]

@David K o l i n

I disagree, Greg. Not so much with your observations, but rather your conclusion. I find Bob’s notes quite useful. Will they match my descriptions of a particular bottle at a particular point in time. Probably not. Nor does his palate preferences match mine. But his impressions aren’t random (rather, I find them pretty consistent) and I think he does a pretty remarkable job given the sheer volume of wines that he tastes

My impression too. His TNs seem to be very consistent. The thing is to more or less ignore the scores, and learn how to calibrate what he means vs your own tastes. For instance, he consistently rates PNs and other light wines lower (there was a long thread on that a few months ago, I think on the “other” board), and there are certain code words that he uses that indicate various things, like ooze monsters. Come to think of it, somebody should write up a “translators guide”, I mean a compilation of his tendencies and usages to help people interpret the notes. Maybe there is one somewhere?

On the other hand, the number of wines that he (and the other WA tasters) rate is as you say really large, more than anyone else AFAIK. So they can be useful if you know how to interpret them.

[Peter_Kleban]

@Paul Jaouen

@Rick Gregory

are any of you really under the impression that critics taste 5-10 wines a day and spend weeks in a region? Really? Come on.

Nope but then I also don’t think most taste 150 to 200 wines for 10 straight days.

Yes, that does sound pretty brutal. Make me wonder why he does it that way, surely he could reduce the pace a bit.

[ToddFrench]

Will be GREAT timing to have next week’s special guest here!

[Rick_Gregory]

@Paul Jaouen

@Rick Gregory

are any of you really under the impression that critics taste 5-10 wines a day and spend weeks in a region? Really? Come on.

Nope but then I also don’t think most taste 150 to 200 wines for 10 straight days.

Really? You think Tanzer and other major critics hit a region and do something all that different from above? I don’t. I get that you’re a fan of RP Paul, but I don’t know that most critics do things that differently when hitting a region. Of course, most regions don’t even have that many wines. Frankly, I’d not realized the Rhone had that many.

But I’m not sure what the point of the thread or of RP is. Yes, critics taste a lot of wine in a short amount of time. Yeah, it can be brutal. So? I’m sorry, but my first thought was the same as anyone who’s successful and outlines stuff like this - “if you don’t like it, do something else.” I don’t get the impression RP was doing a 'poor, poor me" above, but to the degree others are doing it for him, well, I assume he likes doing what he’s doing or he’d stop. He’s certainly made enough money to retire. Hell, he could retire (or cut WAY back) and still run TWA. In fact, I was wondering if he’d do that when Rovani left - cut back to doing just the regions he loves, hire a couple of people to do other major regions and taper off. In many ways I was kind of hoping he would refocus and do just the regions he loves as I’d like to see critics do that in general.

In any event, he can have that life - I wouldn’t want to maintain a schedule like that in the least. But I’m not going to praise him for his sacrifice either - he’s very well compensated and I assume he likes the life or he’d quit it at this point.

[Jim_Sawitzke]

Doesn’t Ambien + alcohol = Bad Stuff?

[Mike_Heyse]

“rarely except any dinners”

Does he really not know the difference between “accept” and “except?” He’s a professional journalist. And apparently a ridiculously tired, sensory-overloaded, wine tasting machine. I could not do, and would not want, that job. And Jim, I was thinking the same thing re: ambien. He mentioned it several times, too. Scary. Great article in Men’s Health this month about Ambien Sleep Walkers.

[ToddFrench]

@Jim Sawitzke

Doesn’t Ambien + alcohol = Bad Stuff?

INCREDIBLY bad - equal, in many cases, to a very severe narcotics addiction

[Jim_Sawitzke]

@Mike Heyse

“rarely except any dinners”

Does he really not know the difference between “accept” and “except?” He’s a professional journalist. And apparently a ridiculously tired, sensory-overloaded, wine tasting machine. I could not do, and would not want, that job. And Jim, I was thinking the same thing re: ambien. He mentioned it several times, too. Scary. Great article in Men’s Health this month about Ambien Sleep Walkers.

I’ll have to read that article. I have used Ambien on occassion (< once/month), usually if I’m “too tired to sleep” and really need to get caught up. But only if I know I can get 8-10 hours of sleep, and never if I might need to wake up earlier for some unexpected reason (ie; I’m home alone with the kids). For me at least it’s pretty hard to wake up after taking it unless I’ve gotten that 8-10 hours in…

[Rick_Gregory]

He only mentions it twice above that I saw and both times it’s not at all clear that he was drinking near the time he took the Ambien.

I don’t quite get why he doesn’t fly in a couple of days early instead of right when he needs to be there etc. If he were new and couldn’t afford a few days on either side of the trip, ok, but he’s RP. At this point I’m sure he can afford to hang out in Paris for a few days on either side of the trip. Odd that he doesn’t, but who know what he had to do before the trip.

[Enzo_Ruffalo]