Any shred of respect you might have had is gone.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2014/01/parker-compares-perfect-sonoma-pinot-to-drc
FIFY!
I just checked on WineBid and two of the Peter Michael pinots that were scored 100 doubled in price with this news. Unreal paying $460 for domestic PN; won’t be surprised to see the price hit over $500.
And not just any La Tache but 1990 La Tache…
I have yet to taste a 1990 La Tache and seeing the price tag probably never will. It is a extremely bold statement that surely will see allot of criticism. What is really sad is seeing the prices for these wines blowup to where most cannot afford to drink them. Thanks RMP!
Becky Gibb is God’s fool. Leaders and favorite relatives are “revered”, not frigging wine reviewers. I would have let it pass if she had referred to Parker as “my dear Uncle Bob”. His ignorance in comparing one of the greatest wines ever made to anything other than another great-vintage La Tache or a Romanee-Conti, much less a new-release Pinot Noir, is absolutely mind-boggling. I am guessing that he did not get the memo that we agreed to stop making unsupportable comparisons, good, bad or indifferent, between Burgundy and California Pinot Noir. At some point it is going to make me sad that Parker’s taste and rhetoric apparently has no low-water marks…
But to be fair, Sir Peter does have that long history of making, well, ONE Pinot Noir from, well, the Santa Lucia Highlands that, well, nobody ever gave a rat’s ass about. But the wines are made by Morlet, a Parker darling whose track record is, well, a few years old. That is more than enough reason to compare Pinots made from 7-8-year-old vines that appear to be planted in the middle of a national forest to the world’s finest, and also for some complete morons to pay over $500 a pop for a wine that they have not even tasted. (Thank God the small quantity of wine may have some limiting effect on the number of said morons!)
Has anybody here tasted the Peter Michael wines in question? How would you characterize their style? Are they big like Marcassin?
Love the point in the comments that Brewer Clifton got only 95 points for their “dead ringer for 90 La Tache” and not all dead ringers being created equal apparently.
Anyone willing to follow Parker on matters of pinot, where he has the most tone-deaf palate and is so obviously transparent in his animus against Burgundy because they treat him like a laughingstock, basically should be soon parted from their money so that they learn the lesson. Fortunately Parker has done a good job of usually panning the CA producers that actually know how to make pinot noir so none of the producers I buy have had skyrocketing prices. So, yawn, and carry on Bob, for all I care.
Brady,
Peter Michael has a pretty fantastic website with a decent amount of details on the wines and winemaking on all of their wines…here are the two:
http://www.petermichaelwinery.com/file/Information-Archive/Clos_du_Ciel_2010-150dpi.pdf
http://www.petermichaelwinery.com/file/Information-Archive/Ma_Danseuse_2010-150dpi.pdf
Adam Lee
Siduri Wines
I haven’t tasted PM - have you tasted the wines in question?
Thanks for that info, Adam. So the two pinots are from 3-4 year old vines at the time of the 2010 vintage, and both clock in at 15.8% alcohol. These are Bob"s pinnacle of pinot, and in his estimation just like legendary DRC. No comment necessary.
I have tasted many PM wines. I liked many that I tasted. It is not possible that they can make a 100 pt wine. Just not possible.
The problem isn’t that he scored the wine 100 points. It’s that he used a comparison that can’t be remotely applicable in what seems an obvious attempt be spectacular, controversial and prime the pump for market demand.
Mike, it may not be your intention to invoke the Jeff Leve “Have You Tasted The Wines?” convention here, but I used to be on the PM mailing list and bought liberally (pre-Morlet, I believe). I think that, at least back then, PM made some really fine Chardonnays, among the best, and for a long time, only one middling Cabernet and one middling Pinot Noir. On balance, I would have to say that I was a fan, and that the PM Chards were much more restrained, Burgundian and age-worthy than the Turley-Aubert-whoever style that Parker adores, but my taste eventually gravitated to white Burgundy and other whites. Unless memory fails, there were no 15.8% monstrosities being made at that address then.
I have, however, been fortunate enough to have tasted the 1990 La Tache on multiple occasions, and one does not need to taste any PM Pinots, any other California or Oregon Pinots, or any Pinots from anywhere else on earth, including any other grand cru Burgundies, to savor the bombastic absurdity of Parker’s analogy. It is not at all about the lack of quality at PM. It is about there not being a snowball’s chance in hell that PM made anything remotely resembling the 1990 La Tache, and that would be true for damn near everyone’s palate, including Parker’s, were he inclined to be intellectually honest and open-minded for a change. I doubt that he can even remember the last time that he tasted a 1990 La Tache…
Yep, for an audience willing to pay two or three times what the wines are worth (or at least what they were trading for, pre-Parker) that has likely never tasted the 1990 La Tache. I still do not believe that Parker intends to “prime the pump”, as you say, Jim. I just think that he is becoming increasingly brazen, reckless and irresponsible, no small feat when your stock-in-trade is nothing but semi-literate musings and arbitrary numerical scores. It is almost enough to make me nostalgic for Galloni’s California coverage. Well, not REALLY, but…
Bill, as much as I despise his palate and his personality, I think there are still alot of folks who follow what he recommends, and I think he can absolutely drive that market.
I also agree that this is a brazen tactic to retain relevance and visibility.
In any case, the comparison is so outlandish as to be patently absurd to those who have tasted Burgundies in general, let alone La Tache!
I am not sure Parker would know a 100 point Burgundy if it bit him.
News flash - Parker does not get Pinot Noir.
In other news, sun rose in the east this AM, and an Andy Reid coached team mismanaged the game clock.
Yep. It does appear that there are some constants in an ever changing universe.
I do agree that these two factors make me leery of Pinot greatness.