"Robert Parker's Bitch" on vimeo (free)

WINE TALK
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Simply scroll down to end of article and register for free.
Apologies if this has been posted already.
See Todd’s suggested link in next post for a shortcut.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/food-and-wine/ci_12511887" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[bye2.gif]

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Here’s the link to the video

Robert Parker's Bitch on Vimeo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Can’t embed Vimeo on here as far as I know)

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Interesting comments from Randy dunn who is know to dealcohol his wines…

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I know Randy Tony. He also intentionally keeps the Ph low to allow his wines to age. He also has not been in town for several of RMP’s California tasting adventures, thus no scores posted for those vintages.
He is not the norm. Neither are his wines.

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Jack - I agree he is not the norm. He cruises around in the cowboy hat, uses an old destemmer that macerates the seeds extracting even more tannin, can have brett in his wines and picks around 14.5-15% natural alcohol levels and dealcs. All the while ripping people for making “bigger” Cabs. And plus having a vineyard on Howell Mtn, it is possible to get Cab picked at riper levels with low pH’s naturally - I say naturally as opposed to adding Tartaric Acid to the wines.

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Plus he started getting some poor scores IIRC from RP and WS. I remember his son talking about it with another winemaker. They were pretty disappointed b/c they really thought the critics would like the wine.

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As for Tom Eddy…it’s been a while since I have had one of his Cabs. I think I had a couple from the mid 90’s like 96/97 and both were terrific wines. Well balanced, complex but with nice richness - not over the top at all.

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Some bad scores from Laube. His point of comparing higher alcohol and lower alcohol together in blind tastings reveals the built in bias that he suggests in this video.
Tom Eddy’s wines have been rich and lovely for years. The fact that he does not seek reviews of his wines shows his fortitude.

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hmmmm… so they tried to make wine just to please the critics palate? [suicide.gif]

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Bob, not everyone is a fan of Randy Dunn’s wines. Some hate them. Dunn has made his wines the same way for over 30 years. He could give a crap about what the critics think. I don’t know where Tony heard his comment from Randy’s son, but that is not the opinion of the father.

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Randy - I used to work at Outpost wines which abuts Randy’s property. His son and Randy were at Outpost quite a bit since that is where the Howell Mtn Vintners Association met 1 x per month. I was present when Randy was talking Thomas Brown about the scores.

Listen - I like Randy and his son (a pretty good mtn biker), they are good people. it just strikes me that Randy is being a bit disingenuous when he decries high alcohol wines but has no problem dealching. Plus his son does most of the cellar work…quite a feat considering he’s pretty much a one man show for a 4000 case winery.

I’ll say this:

Do winemakers that barrel taste the critics choose certain barrels? - YES

Do winemakers sometimes bottle a barrel sample that may not be fully representative of the final blend? YES

Do winemakers sometimes back blend (add a little of the most recent vintage to a bottling say add some 2007 cab to that 2006 cab you are bottling) for a little freshness and maybe a little mid palate punch? YES

Do winemakers that taste with the critics personally open, taste, decant, open more bottles until they get a really good one? YES

Do winemakers like high scores? Most do

Are they disappointed if they don’t get a high score? Yup. I mean are you disappointed if you lose a case in the courtroom…it’s human nature.

Are some winemakers incentivized to get high scores? Yup

The list goes on…

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Back to this video. I think Karen M has a pretty balanced view.

If you want scores but don’t like Laube’s palate or Parker’s palate don’t submit your wines to them. There are other publications.

I know a winemaker that doesn’t submit his PInots to Parker or Laube but does to Burghound. He does so because he doesn’t think that Parker and Laube will like the style - a little higher toned fruit and higher in acid. He does well with Burghound.

Kosta Browne doesn’t submit their wines to Parker anymore…Laube loves them Parker doesn’t. Which is funny b/c almost every winemaker I know thought Parker would love KB.

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I’m getting off topic but Parker, Laube/WS, and to a lesser extent Tanzer have done a good job as Karen states getting people interested in wine, wine from different regions and less common varietals. Is their influence waning a bit with the sheer information we have yes.

What one critic likes, not everyone will.

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Now I know who Alice is and why here last name is/was blocked from being printed on eBob.

It is reality that critics are not going away and scores drive sales so it would seem that the only logical approach from a winemaker’s perspective is to make wines in a style they are passionate about and only submit them to critics whose palates match this style. It would appear counterproductive to run a winery with a strategy to only make wines in a style that you think will get huge scores from Parker or Laube.

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Yawn. Other than Tony’s insights above, I find this all quite boring.

The way to fix the system (if it is indeed broken) is to drink what you like, challenge your palate and share what you’ve found.

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Here was Dr. Jay Miller’s take on it, before the thread was shut down (shocking) on Parker’s censored board…

Jay Stuart Miller
Executive Oenophile

Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 873

A New Video - Robert Parker’s Bitch
I saw the video. Tedious is the word that comes to mind for me. People have been going round and round on these issues forever.

A few observations: 1)Just why do you suppose Randy Dunn is whining so much? It wasn’t so terribly long ago that he was the “cult” winery and his excellent wines were impossible to get. He has stayed true to his style (to his credit) but I think it must be killing hime to see the fruit bomb, high alcohol Harlans, Colgins, Sloans, etc, commanding the high dollars, selling direct, and getting all the press. 2) Tom Eddy? is this the best the film-maker could do? Totally mediocre wine. 3) Tina Caputo looked like a fool standing across the street calling out RMP. That function was for charity - RMP donated his time and efforts for free on that occasion. I have a few more “bitches” but that’s it for now.

That was back in March, before the kinder, gentler board took over. [rofl.gif]

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I have to agree with Jay on all those points (no pun intended).

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I think that’s happening, absolutely, Ben. Particularly on the consumer side, where the new wine drinkers barely care at all for what any “expert” thinks - they drink what they like, AND, more importantly, they rely on new technologies such as this forum, blogging, etc to get information and tasting notes.

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I must be getting old. Not only did I totally miss this video in March, but also overlooked an interestingly tidbit about it posted elsewhere:

One thing that was, interestingly, not mentioned, is that for a couple of years now Karen MacNeil writes for Parker’s website.

http://www.westcoastwine.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=350017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Yeah, I think that is why the thread got closed on eRP, because some of that would have come out. As I recall, no posts were deleted, it just got squashed before it blew up.

Shockingly, Bruce Leiserwitz was all over that thread.

Ben S,

I also can agree with much of what Dr J said, but at the same time, was it appropriate for him to speak in that tone? The thread was locked almost immediately after his post. Looks like moderaters protecting their critics?

Opinions are just that. Everyone is entitled to one.