Steve posted the timing of the release of his latest issue on his wine board. An impish member asked him how many 100-pointers there would be in the new issue. Steve replied:
“A 100-point score for a young wine is just a cry for attention.”
Somebody needs to get the word to Parker and Suckling…
Is there a suggestion that the tweetless one has cried out for attention?
Missing so far in the e-psychoanalysis of wine reviewers and their product is the fact that in order to serially proclaim judgements of perfection, the judge must first have judged himself to be perfect.
The scores awarded to a wine by both the Parker 100-pt scale and the WineSpec 100-pt scale are for the wine at their peak of maturity. So Tanzer is dead wrong with his quote…unless the Tanzer 100-pt scale awards the
score for the wine at this exact point in time. I’ve never used the Tanzer 100-pt scale, so I can’t speak to his scoring.
Tom
I think that RP is giving out too many 100 pointers. Almost every CdP is getting 100p from him nowadays. Stephen Tanzer on the other hand is much more reserved in this respect and his 100p scale seems to end at 99p. My palett is more syncroniced with Tanzer though. His reviews of Burgundy are very reliable.
It’s been a few years since I listened to the GrapeRadio interview with Tanzer. But my recollection is he rates wines as of the date tasted. He adds a + if it is felt the wine is young/closed and will improve. I believe he made comments along the lines of not feeling he could predict the evolution of a wine with any real certainty and that was why IWC has so few 100 (or for that matter 99) point scores.
I’m sure you can go back to the archive and listen, it was a good interview as I recall. Probably drove my subscription at the time.
I think Tanzer was questioning hte ability to tell exactly what a wine would taste like at its ‘peak of maturity’ in 20+ years based on a couple of sips right after it was bottled.
Probably both are true, IMO. However, I wonder how many RP 100’s there have been, just counting recently bottled Bordeaux reviews, and how these 100-pointers have faired over time. Anyone know? Are there a lot of Bordeaux wines RP has scored 100 at his in-the-bottle review that have been significantly disappointing?
When you’re a pro like Parker or Laube, and have yrs of experience with these wines and predicting their evolution, and have a very perspacious/accurate palate, I think
they can make those predictions w/ unerring/uncanny accuracy. Maybe this Tanzer guy, whoever he is, is just not up to the job…a rookie.
Tom