Is that the 100 point wine glass.
Haha!!!
I canât unsee that!
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âDogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!â - Bill Murray, Ghostbusters
also subscribed this past year pretty much exclusively for Williamâs knowledge and thoughts.
William Kelley provides more detailed review of Le Bon Pasteur here:
That shirt is not his worst, to be fair.
And, he didnât pop the collar.
Heâs kinda got a Charlie Brown thing going on.
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Thatâs exactly right. The stylistic choices that were very fashionable a decade or two ago today look, I venture, immensely unfashionable; or, to put it another way, old-fashioned. Just as you donât hear many people listening to the Spice Girls these days⊠One producer who wasnât happy with my score contacted me to âremindâ me that I write for our readers and not for myself; yet my impression is that the market is, in fact, very much moving in the same directionâjust look at what has happened at Troplong Mondot since 2018! As Chanel put it, fashion changes but style endures; and rather than being a swing of the pendulum, the tendency of contemporary Bordeaux seems to me to be more of a return to a classically Bordelais style, while retaining the advantages of modernityâripe, rigorously selected grapes; very precise tannin management; elimination of brettanomyces (even if this is far from a fait accompli everywhere in Bordeaux); less oxidative Ă©levage; more precise bottling practices etc etc. In appreciating all of this, we mustnât forget what a catalyst âModernistâ winemaking was; but in pushing the boundaries, sometimes we exceed them, and itâs important to know when to rein things inâespecially given that the climate of the last decade has largely supplied all the richness and more that people were grasping for in the 1990s.
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Next thing you know, Todd will be wearing some garish shirts.
I love the smell of the new Wine Advocate in the morning. Smells likeâŠvictory!
I always found it an odd obsession, paying for someone elseâs opinion, especially given under the previous management, that it appeared more important what the reviewer thought, rather than them equipping their readers with the insight to make their own decision.
That said, the reinvention / rebranding is an interesting exercise and despite us having some fun with the traitorous OP ( ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
), his subscription is perhaps indicative of genuine change to the brand.
Iâm guessing itâs not yet publicly known as Michelin wine guide, but would expect that change to happen sooner rather than later, especially when the value of the old brand is more questionable given a stylistic (and attitude) change. The Michelin brand has significant reach and value in the wider world for sure.
Did Squires leave as well? Iâm so out of the loop I must have missed that. It was certainly Parker and Squires who were the problem personalities (though people like Rovani left before I had any awareness of their forum, so Iâve no idea if he was problematic as well). Beyond those two, I got the impression that other reviewers would often tread gently and diplomatically to try and calm the situation, or simply stay out of the train wreck if Squires and Parker were especially combative.
I remember them doing that to Ric Einstein (TORB) and thinking it a remarkable act to code any mention of their name to be replaced by asterisks.
Good moderators live up to the name and moderate the discussion, attempting to apply a pragmatic ruleset in an even-handed manner. The worst treat it as a personal fiefdom, seeking to force the conversation to match their way of thinking, and removing those that wonât comply, in the manner of a military dictator. In the long run, good moderation does pay better dividends, as we saw with the demise of their forum, going from biggest to dead inside a small few years.
I know a big Poseur on this site that often quips, âclass and classicism never goes out of styleâ.
Interesting comparison between Williamâs 2019 note, and the note from his then-colleague at TWA, Lisa P. Brown:
Rich and demonstrative, the 2019 Bon Pasteur delivers aromas of cherries, blackberries, figs, warm spices and wood smoke. Full-bodied, rich and extracted, with a jammy core of fruit, ripe acids and plenty of fine, powdery tannin that asserts itself on the heady finish, this is a muscular, rather chunky Pomerol that remains faithful to the stylistic fashions of the early 2000s while the rest of the wine world moves on.
88 pts.
And
The 2019 Bon Pasteur sports a deep garnet-purple color, charging out of the glass with bold blackberry pie, blueberry preserves and prunes notes followed by hints of cedar chest, Ceylon tea, Indian spices and licorice with a waft of violets. Full-bodied, the palate packs a wallop of black fruits, framed by rock-solid, grainy tannins and tons of freshness, finishing with great length and depth.
92-94+ pts.
I really appreciate that the spread of points is around the 91-93 range for the Grand Vin vs 97-100. especially given declaring it ânot a great vintage.â whereas other publications would still feel the need to give the moutons, lafites, latours, etc 99-100 points even when they say the vintage is mediocre.
Everything comes full circle.
Wine Berserkers will soon become the official forum for the Wine Advocate.
And can a requirement to subscribe to WA in order to post be far behind?
Or maybe only Grand Cru members or above will be allowed to subscribe to WA?
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I think that is inaccurate. Look at years like 2012 and 2013 that were not âgreatâ vintages and you will see low 90s for even some of the firsts (it was either 2012 or 2013 Lafite that got a 91, which is like declaring a 1st basically undrinkable 
) There can also be a winery that has a great success in an otherwise troublesome vintage.
has suckling ever given a grand vin a 91 before? i dont know if his scoring system even goes below 95! but absolutely, i have seen it happen before, but i just mean even the wines that got praise werent just automatically in the upper 90s just because of their price stratification, which was nice.