So to give a little history here . . .the latest Wine Advocate came out and to put it succinctly, Parker rips Steve Edmunds a new asshole. He says he is making French wine in California and there is something inherently wrong with that even though all he (Parker) does is laud spoofulated California wine being made in Bordeaux. He also, countlessly compares domestic wines to French counterparts. Anybody recollect this? "1992 Spoofing Hamster is a like a cross between 1947 Lafleur, 1999 La Turque and ripe vintage of Pavie." It really made me steam! Parker continues to say Steve's wines have nice aromas yet have little body and makes the comment "Where's the Beef?" It comes across as an incredibly condescending, insulting and hurtful tirade. It seems to be that if the wine is not made in a Parker blockbuster style it is somewhat irrelevant. There is some great commentary in the thread from the usual suspects but I am glad Steve gets some props and people are looking at it and there is interest being garnered for his wines. It could not have happened to a nicer guy and thank goodness Steve Edmunds is Steve Edmunds and is smart enough to take this in stride and continue to march to his own drummer. Edmunds St. John debaucle on the Chinese National Wine Bulletin Board.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Don't mess with Parker . . .
So to give a little history here . . .the latest Wine Advocate came out and to put it succinctly, Parker rips Steve Edmunds a new asshole. He says he is making French wine in California and there is something inherently wrong with that even though all he (Parker) does is laud spoofulated California wine being made in Bordeaux. He also, countlessly compares domestic wines to French counterparts. Anybody recollect this? "1992 Spoofing Hamster is a like a cross between 1947 Lafleur, 1999 La Turque and ripe vintage of Pavie." It really made me steam! Parker continues to say Steve's wines have nice aromas yet have little body and makes the comment "Where's the Beef?" It comes across as an incredibly condescending, insulting and hurtful tirade. It seems to be that if the wine is not made in a Parker blockbuster style it is somewhat irrelevant. There is some great commentary in the thread from the usual suspects but I am glad Steve gets some props and people are looking at it and there is interest being garnered for his wines. It could not have happened to a nicer guy and thank goodness Steve Edmunds is Steve Edmunds and is smart enough to take this in stride and continue to march to his own drummer. Edmunds St. John debaucle on the Chinese National Wine Bulletin Board.
You are cruisin' for a little reeducation, my man. Politburo member Squires might just send you out to the countryside to learn to harvest rice for a few years and develop better proletarian views.
ReplyDeleteThere is such tension there.
ReplyDeleteMark S. clearly has some internal frission between his independent views and clampdown mode.
It was fun while it lasted.
hen again MS did say go somewhere else to play over this topic. so here I am
DrK
Dr. K.
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing!
Lyle,
ReplyDeleteSquires put the clampdown on before I could join the thread. I find it very interesting to compare Parker's notes on the ESJ wines with the notes in the same issue a few pages later on Fife. Same scores, VERY different notes, both in tone, and descriptors. Reading the ESJ notes you'd think the scores would be much lower -- Parker clearly taking a swipe at him, for some unknown reason. The "French" comment is certainly beyond the pale.
Alder,
ReplyDeleteHe definetly has it out for Steve . . .probably because he posts on Therapy.
Don't kid yourself DrK, Mark's approach to clamping-down on threads like that is wholly endorsed and supported by the Sun King himself.
ReplyDeleteI had a little email exchange with Bob regarding Mark's penchant for disrupting threads, and the Le Roi Soleil made it clear that not only does he support Mark fully, but he thinks most threads like that are actually allowed to continue too long...
I guess we'll never know what Neal Mollen's response would have been.
Lyle, kudos for taking Parket to task. Have you followed the saga of Alice Feiring being kicked out of the chatroom?
ReplyDeleteI sat at the table next to you at Bette the night you blogged it. I didn't drink as well as you that night but returned a few weeks later.
http://dobianchi.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/looking-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places/
Have been enjoying your blog... Best, Jeremy Parzen
Parker likes people with different views, until they actually express them.
ReplyDeleteJeremy,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and I am glad you are reading. You were dining with Bernie Sun and he wasn't breaking out the big lumber?
Keith,
Isn't that a line from somewhere?
Jim,
That is good info.
As an aside, I'd like to thank both Lyle and Keith for your blogs, as well as input on various forums. You guys have turned me on to various wines (which I probably wouldn't have otherwise heard about) thanks to your insightful comments.
ReplyDeleteLyle - not that I know of...
ReplyDeleteJim - many thanks! It's always nice to know I'm not shouting at the wind.
thanks lyle, i missed that thread over the weekend. holy crap. think i'll open an '01 wylie-fenaughty tonight...
ReplyDeleteLyle, I can't believe I missed this about Steve's wines. I'm headed there to read right now. I guess since I've been bounced off of ebob, I haven't been haunting it so closely, but you know? I think the fact that Steve posts to Therapy might indeed be the problem for Mr. Parker.--Alice Feiring
ReplyDeleteAlice,
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point and come to think of it Brian Loring has also posted around 20 times on Therapy too....maybe that is why the scores are so low as the wines seem right in Parker's sweet spot.