|
 If my memory serves me right, it was the vintage of 2008 that was being reviewed by several experts and journalists in April and May 2009 and the prices were still under speculation. Most people had generally trashed the vintage after the 2007 had stabilised in prices. But no wine estate announced the En Primeur prices and waited-till one day when the King decided to give his Review. He pronounced the vintage to be very good- contrary to what everybody had been saying. And wham! The prices announced were much higher than predicted by the pundits. But, as I said... if my memory serves me right!
This incident was not as dramatic as the 1982 vintage of which I have no recollection, when it was pronounced as an excellent vintage by him in sharp contrast to most people damning the vintage in the spring of 1983, that brought him to the fore and made him the singularly most powerful critic and rater that he is and every year his views are awaited before the prices of En Primeur are announced by the wineries, the withdrawal of Chateau Latour a couple of years ago notwithstanding.
All that is about to change..unless the new man designated by Robert Parker can exert the same clout as him, an act not easy to follow and this may not be the coronation or anointment for Neal Martin. Parker announced his retirement from the En Primeur tasting on Wednesday, first on the Wine Advocate website and then followed by a Press Conference in London where the whole team including Robert Parker, Lisa Perrotti Brown, the present Editor-in Chief of the new avatar of WA were present. She had taken over his role a couple of years ago when he sold his stake to a group of investors based in Singapore where she resides.
"As just part of the planned coverage for this year, Neal will review the 2014 en primeur releases from Bordeaux. Meanwhile I plan to review the newly bottled 2012 vintage wines and produce a comprehensive 10-year retrospective on the incredible 2005 Bordeaux vintage," writes Parker on the Bulletin Board of eRobertparker. He has been reviewing practically every vintage of Bordeaux since 1978 and says the change was inevitable.
Reportedly Neal had been hired by him in 2006 after writing for his own website wine-journal.com for 3 years and writing a book on Pomerol. He covered Bordeaux for 18 years.
At the Press Conference where Lisa talked about the future activities of the publication, he insisted he was not retiring. He also tweeted later, "I'm going to miss en primeur, the challenge of getting my head around a new vintage." They say old soldiers never die-they fade away. A lawyer in his previous professional life is also a wine soldier (more like a Field Marshal, actually) and has no intention of retiring. “I will die on the road, or keel over in some winery. Retirement is a formula for death,’ while adding that he would not give up tasting Napa and Sonoma either.
Reflecting on the wine world since he entered in 1978, he reportedly said, ‘“The wine world I entered in 1978 doesn’t look anything like the wine world today. Nothing has stayed the same. In the first issue of Wine Advocate I reviewed 300 wines. The one that made my name, tasting the 1982 vintage in the spring of 1983, featured 600 wines. This last year in total the Wine Advocate team has generated 29,000 professional tasting notes.”
“There has been a dramatic increase in quality throughout the world. When I started less than 1% of Bordeaux wines were good. Margaux was mediocre, Lafite was just getting its act together. Now across the board it’s getting better. People recognise it’s a global business, and there is incredibly intense competition. This has led to intense improvement in vineyards and an increase in organic and biodynamic production. The goal of wineries throughout the world now is to translate the terroir of the vineyard in the most unadulterated was possible and get it into bottle so that what you taste is a true representation of the soil, vintage and region.”
Robert Parker has left his inimitable stamp on Bordeaux wines and their ratings forever. The En Primeur is also unlikely to be the same without him in the rather competitive world of experts and wine educated who have entered post- 1978 and have been biding their time.
For earlier related articles, click
Everybody can get 100 Points by Robert Parker soon
Ratings and Appellations: It’s All about Money, Honey
Subhash Arora |