I wonder if Sir Mix-A-Lot, who likes big wines and he cannot lie, mixed 2015 and 2018?
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Modern day wine criticism reminds me of Lowes The road to Xanadu. Does reading every book Coleridge read, help me understand The ancient Mariner better or is it better when approaching The ancient mariner, to have no previous knowledge of the poem, the context, the biography etc. Does these endless verticals and comparing older wines/vintages make me understand current releases better.
But then T.S Eliot comes to mind with his âeach generation brings to the contemplation of art, and has its own categories of appreciation, makes its own demands upon art and has its own uses for art.â
I recently watched the zoom interview you did with Wine Beserkers and was quite surprised at the amount of self reflection and self critic or critic of the current modern day wine criticism practices.
You said about not tasting and judging from barrel, but rather from the bottle as you experienced the dramatic changes that can occur within a week. Something I find encouraging. I do not want to single out Jeff Leve as other do it as well, but his current posts on instagram the best so and so donât really wash with consumers anymore as it is becoming repetitive with each new vintageâŚ
T.S. Eliot goes on to write about the function of criticism âthe elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste.â
Correction of taste is quite strong, but seen at the time when Eliot wrote this, it was necessary. I wonder if we can draw parallels with today. What must Bordeaux do to appeal to a wider, younger public? I personally donât think endless tasting notes and points are the answer. Rather the critic must provide Workshop criticism, the term Eliot uses to describe Ezra Pounds style of criticism.
But coming back to Xanadu, and again Eliot, biography cannot be used as a reliable form of criticism as the points where facts and conjecture intertwine can be very personal.
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Valmy is the owner of La Conseillante. He is an important of the team at Figeac. Itâs a shame so many people on this board look at Rolland as the boogeyman. He is the best blender in Bordeaux. Thatâs what he is best at.
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Itâs still true today. But thatâs not going to stop folks from having strong opinions 
Thomas Duclos is part of a team. He is not the winemaker. Your person in the know, needs to ask someone actually in the know.
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if the best blender in Bordeaux is a 76 year old who chain smokes cigars, than Bordeaux is in worse trouble than we thought
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Apropos to the point though, the most salient question is whether Rolland has any real involvement. What say you, mon frere?
And isnât it, âDuclos is part of THE teamâ? As in at Figeac.
While I realize this forum is pretty much ground zero tolerance for Michel he has always been a nice enough all round fun guy to hang with for me. And hey, here he is at Conseillante tasting the grapes the day before harvest in 2020!
And Marielle doing some picking to boot!
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May heâs gotten dotty in his old age and just wanders through vineyards eating grapes off the vine.
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He has his fansâŚhis foes are just more vocal here, methinks
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The Vocal Berserkers, sounds like a barbershop quartet.
I suddenly picture a group of tenors in Viking garb, led by the ferocious Count T(Oddo) whirling his warhammer, with Arne Alfert and Ulf Golodetz providing the harmonies and brandishing their bear-claws, singing âMichel, my Earlâ, as they hurl bottles of Figeac 2018 into the crowd of baying Berserkers.
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Rollandâs presence can be good or evil, YMMV. Most of the posters here have sophisticated palates. We know what we like in a wine and we know what we dislike. I have had wines that, unbeknownst to me, were made under the direction of Rolland and have really liked them. Even after I learned that fact I still liked them. In vino veritas.
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Agreed. Anything or anyone can be a double edged sword. I have had enough of my own (and at the times heatedly defended) preconceived notions turned on their ass to know that anyone proclaiming absolute certainty is absolutely certainly misguided.
True. Absolutes are hard. We can all be fooled.
But I look at it through the prism of a simple country lawyer: If 75% of the wines - or heck letâs say 50% of the wines - made by Rolland are a bit much for my clunky palate, why would I ever buy another? With my money, I want to hit 8-9 times out of ten or better. I will not knowingly buy anything touched by him, even totally acknowledging yâallâs point that some of his wines might be fine or that some of his wines, blind, I might like. With my money, the word âmightâ is generally unacceptable, when there is a wealth of fine Bordeaux, that I love and generally do not disappoint. And thatâs leaving aside my very dogmatic, ideological thought about guys like him, that want to place his imprimatur on top of the entire region of Bordeaux, in a manner that really does lose touch with the site and even the region. I have had some wines by him that are virtually indistinguishable from a Napa Cab. I live in America, I might as well buy the cab if I were to accept Rolland. Incidentally, one can even find him here in the States, ironically from producers that perhaps are seeking to mimick Bordeaux. Itâs a foolâs errand. Good riddance is what I say, even if, as you say, heâs a fun and nice guy. Thatâs a different issue, of course.
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More like the Californication of Bordeaux. The wines are riper, more polished, more homogenous, less distinctive, and less interesting. Bordeaux was my first wine love and one that I expected to last forever. What is in the bottle these days, say vintage 2000 and younger, most often doesnât live up to the hype.
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FWIW, here a link to an article I had published in Club Oenologique late last year about Figeac. There is no denying the amazing work being done in recent years to improve precision in wine making. But the 1947 I tried was made before all these bells and whistles and got my highest score. No one has a crystal ball. Itâll be interesting to see how these recent vintages evolve.
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Thanks for the Notes Marcus. I too loved the '95, 2000, and the 1990 is consistently one of the best Bordeaux Iâve had. I blame your scores on palate shift. I guess weâve corrupted you by having too many burgundy dinners, lol.
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We are (as usual) devolving into the âI donât like it so it is by definition bad wineâ phase of Bordeaux conversations on Berserkers.
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Kinda like, Buecker doesnât like Phil, Buecker doesnât like LIV, Buecker doesnât like cycling cause all dopers, Buecker doesnât like X, Y and Z (and Iâll avoid the posts from Politics). Sorta the same thing one could posit, except this is a wine forum about wine, pros and cons. I say this tongue in cheek, of courseâŚ
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