I left out Mark Squires but that was an oversight.
Mark has said on numerous occasions that he likes Port wine but doesn’t drink it much. I have not ever paid attention to his tasting notes over the years EXCEPT with his Douro wine reviews. Friends and a few people on this BB accused me of being a hypocrite when I started a thread after his first article and complimented him loudly. It truly was not a “suck up” situation, but having had many of the same wines and some on numerous occasions (I started drinking Douro wines in 1994, upon my very first visit there) I felt he did a really splendid job in not only providing ratings very similar to my own (which really matters not that we had similar reads) but in his astute conveyance of his descriptions of those wines. I felt he did a marvelous job, with lots of people ready to lynch him with any mistakes.
It would certainly save Parker money to have Mark do Port too, as he already goes over there, but as he already is covering so many regions there … I think Parker was wise to keep the two functions separate.
As for me, I’ve been reviewing cask samples or just bottled samples since the early 1990s vintages, although I started drinking Port in the early 1980s. As Bob Wood and Brad Kane are two of the only people left here (or on Squires’ from the old AOL wine message boards) they first saw my writing on Port in 1995. Then in 1997 when I did my first online review of the 1994 vintage. Like I did for years on Robin Garr’s board and for the past six years on Squires’ … the old AOL wine message board was my place to spew about Port for seven years (and occasionally Madeira too).
In fairness, I don’t just drink VP, I drink every type of Port … even the cheapies on occasion. Since 2004 when I dropped my career to begin more serious writing about Port, I’ve been to Portugal more often than any other non-Portuguese writer with the exception of Richard Mayson – and he lives over there. I have written between 350-550 Port TNs per year ever since. I had over a thousand on the old AOL BB from my earlier days … but sadly, as Bob can attest to, without any notice … the archives were shut down and we all lost all of our TNs.
It has been fun writing for my own little niche site and newsletter and trust me, it is not for the money … in reality … just as it started, it is all for the love of Port.
I’m done after this:
Evaluating cask samples of Vintage Port is one of the most palate fatiguing and truly monumental tasting tasks one could ever undertake. I’ve been a professional judge in CA/OR/WA beginning in 1999. I can honestly say that tasting through 150 wines in an eight hour day for a couple of days in a row was only challenging my first year of doing so and I enjoy it very much. I know dozens of people who can do that with ease. But anyone who has ever tasted Port cask samples, can tell you this is hard ass “work.” Andy has come on my Port tours each of the past three years and I can tell you he gets it. Even though we have not had many at a single sittlng, we get to try quite a bit during the course of the trip (and tons of oldies too). Unless someone has some experience at doing this … it is not something that you can tackle just because you are used to evaluating lots of table wines. The sheer alcohol level, enormous concentration of fruit and palate punishing and puckering tannins are just in a different league. As of the 2000 Vintage, I’ve rated between 30 - 52 Ports in just about every year since and will be doing the same with the 2007s.
My best advice, read as many people’s opinions as you can get your hands on and if your palate aligns with one or two of theirs, follow their impressions. But never forget, we/they all make mistakes and their read on cask samples or just finished bottles of Vintage Port … is just the opinion of one person.
Out.