Mark Franks brought up an interesting point that I have been thinking about for awhile. He questioned Robert Parker’s decision to pass along tasting responsibility to Dr J.
I have read numerous reports that the taste buds start to go South for most people at around age 60. This is not a rule, and there are exceptions, but it’s seems to be based on a lot of fact. I have a very good 64 year old friend, with quite the cellar, that lamented recently that he wished he had drank all his best wines 5-7 years ago. He says his current taste buds are nowhere near as keen as then.
Well, Parker is 61 or 62 and Harvey S. at WS is about 63. Certain Oregon winemakers tell me that Harvey’s capacity to pick up and identify flavors is past shot. They claim some of the reported flavors don’t exist, he’s making it up to sound good. Some believe that is the reason he gives so much preference to oak and such ripe wines is that he can still pick it up.The general Agreement among that Group is that Marvin is going to have to do something very soon to maintain credibility. Laube is racing into his mid-50’s. He came under quite a bit of criticism last year when he supposingly admitted that he lost his sense of smell for awhile but continued to rate wines. How can you do a TN with no sense of smell? He claims it is back now.
Well, what about Parker? He doesn’t have a boss. Is he going to know when to call it when? Is he already doing it by passing things down to Dr. J, et.al.
WS is not Marvin S, but Laube, Suckling, Molesworth, Steinam, etc. How much of TWA is Parker? What is everyone’s feeling on this?
I’ve always attributed Harvey’s pinot noir preferences to my theory: He has Kimchi for breakfast before tasting. His scores are still useful though. If your palate runs parallel to mine you just avoid the wines he scores highly, though I make all my Oregon pinot noir buying decisions based on having personally tasted the wines. It helps that I’m local.
Aside: I think your “Age 60 Theory” is so much crap. I just turned 60 and my palate’s as good as it’s ever been.
Maybe your an exception. But my and my neighbors wife were just standing here laughing reading your reply. She said her 65 year old husband still thinks his gets as hard now as it did ten years ago!
Probably a good thing we can’t make true comparisons on all these things in life! Subjectivity over Objectivity.
With your support RP will still be doing TN’s at 85.
Hey, I never said my palate was just as good - I just said “I’ve still got a palate.” I recall someone (maybe Bart Broadbent) saying that his father’s palate might be diminished, but the brain remembers a lot of the nuances of wines.
I started 50 years ago at age 18 with a village St. Julien. When Carollee and I started dating in 1961, we were drinking '59 Bordeaux and Burgundies. It was the Nuits Cailles Morin and Ch. de la Tour Clos Vougeot of that year that took me forever from Bordeaux to Burgundy. We added Rioja, Piedmont, and Tuscany shortly thereafter. 27 bottles of 1947 Nuits Cailles Morin purchased in 1967 (for $7 a bottle) cemented my continuing love of Burgundy. We didn’t have California wine until the mid-70s. We first went to Napa in 1981, and went back once or twice a year for a long time. We also joined the Ridge ATP in 1981. We purchased lots of Grgich Hills and Ch. Montelena wines over the years, but red and white Burgundy remained our true interest. If anything has changed in my palate as I’ve aged, I’ve become less tolerant of young tannic wines, and hard tannins in general.
I’ve never been a fan of plonk, it just doesn’t taste right. I’d rather drink good beer or ale than poor wine.
I would love to see the research on this before I accept the conclusion. And that’s not just denial talking.
I do think that after 60 we want a greater variety of tastes. I find this true with food as well as wine.
Best, Jim
I’m digging through some old sites trying to get the actual report.
I still very clearly remember the articles, I just have to find them. If the proof is conclusive, the important part of the orginal question is: Do you think that RP, HS, and JL, are going to be able to go on indefinitely doing TNs and wine rating with credibility. With Harvey, I think that credibilty is already an issue and believe RP is very close behind.
Perhaps the reason they like the super ripe fruit bombs with big oak is that is all that’s left of the palate… We have Laube giving high 90s scores to Scraders that some have defined in the thread on this forum as syrup and oak. Anybody ever thought the impact to the wineries if a new guy comes along and says sryup and big oak = 82 rating? Enologix becomes a has been. Who will pay him to tell them to pick at 28+ brix, then watch the young guy with taste buds assassinate them. At 62, who thinks Parker has five more years of credible TNs left in him? Without RP, what is TWA?
Stop ducking the real questions guys and girls! [1974_eating_popcorn.gif]
I didn’t mean to dodge the question with my answer. Fact is, at 60, I don’t like wines from the “more of everything is better” school of winemaking. I went through that stage for about three years in my late 40s and anyone familiar with what few TNs I write should be able to pick up on my preference for wines with finesse and balance.
As for what TWA is without Parker, I think I’ll quote Rhett Butler.
The main problem I have with your underlying premiose is that it seems to be muddled.
Taste buds do not pick up smell. that occurs in the nose. Taste buds pick up flavor, but really only detect 5 different flavors: salt, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami.
so, the aroma of a wine is from the nose, that that is really what gives wine that vast majority of its ‘flavor’ as well, since most of what you call ‘flavor’ is simply the nose picking up what is in the mouth, as opposed to what is in the glass.
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
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Subjectivity over Objectivity.![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}