Alan,
Thanks for the post. It’s obviously thought provoking. I can take this in many directions that have already been mentioned by you and the others, but I’ll refrain from the obvious.
Mr. Parker is one of the preeminent wine critics…
Is this guy even a critic anymore? He was, now he’s more of a personality. Everything he does seems predictable year in and out. Galloni is a critic.
Back to the LdH wines. I’m gonna go out on a limb here. First, I am also in the camp of there is no such thing as a 100pt. wine. Wine is far too emotional and chemical to ever be universally perfect. So, I do believe in scales. I’ve had these wines, whites and reds, back to the 50’s.
They are great, interesting wines but I don’t think I would ever “score” them in the highest range of my scale. Why?
- I find them highly intellectual, which to me, is not pleasurable. It’s tiring. Sometimes I don’t want my wines to have too much going on…because I don’t want to think… I want to relax. For me the LdH is always asking for focus and attention and that can bug me.
- A wine that scores highest for me is when it’s enjoyable for the people that I’m with (this makes my scale very unreliable for anyone else). So the wine has to have “universal” appeal for those I’m with. Not to say that discussion and differing of opinion isn’t healthy and fun too, but if three people at my table are like…ugh…what is this oxidative junk…it lowers my bar. I value the human and emotional attachment to wine, and FOR ME that transcends the notion of PERFECTION.
- I agree with the above strongly. The house-style of the wine speaks louder than actual “terroir.” And in some ways (again, on my scale)… the notion of terroir or least intrusive wine-making is very charming to me… even if any wine HAS gobs of fruit. (This is where I can become a little hard to follow. I’m not bothered by “heat” in a wine. I NEVER describe tannins as rough or hot, or biting. It’s usually just more tannic or less tannic. A good taster can see terroir through new oak as well as stainless steel.)
Can a wine that moves you with its beauty deserve a crazy high score even if it’s not the type of wine that ‘blows you away’?
NO. I think I explained that. It’s very emotional for me. Also, I’ve had wines that scored very high for me, that didn’t score as well when I tasted them years later. Bottle variation? Maybe. My own personal variation? Without question. I like that wines get rescored by the critics…but let’s face the fact…things change, we are not robots.
Lastly, as close to being a robot I can say this: I’ve tasted tens of thousands of wines… I can say when things are “correct” for that variety based on the typicity of a huge sample. That said, as we know, the typicity of regions and wine making changes often. So what I correctly identified as “correct” Cali chard 10 years ago, would not be the same “correct” today.
Beyond that, at one point in your life…that wine was WONDERFUL for you. We’ll see what you describe as beauty 5 years from now!
Best
Shaun