Okay..it seems Ojai winemaker Adam Tolmach's comments were misconstrued by the reporter doing the story. Even if they were they were, this in no way means that CA winemakers are not making wines to please Parker's palate. This does not go away because of possible shoddy reporting on the
LA Times part. I am a retailer and I do taste California wine and most of it is over the top. Much more than when I started in the business 10 years ago. It is a problem. Eric Asimov has a story on the whole series of events on his blog,
The Pour.
Lyle,
ReplyDeleteI've read the story and the Asimov entry and nowhere do I get the impression that the main thrust of the sentiment is up for grabs--that people make wine to please Parker's palate to gain high scores and that the high alcohol wines are an indication of that trend--only the exact wines that Tolmach was talking about seems to be in question.
To me, it's just interviewee remorse--saying things to a reporter that, later on, the person wishes he had said a different, more precise way. Reporters don't get every single word down; they get the ones that sing...
As to the statement from Parker about the urban myth, when I email interviewed him for my book I asked him the same question. His answer was along the lines that no self-respecting winemaker would make wine to please one palate.
To me, the operative word in that response was "self-respecting." I wrote in the book after that quote that, after considering the course of human wine history, Parker's statement seems particularly naive.
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ReplyDeleteRemorse is exactly it. Why should he pick a fight with Parker? Look what RP did to Steve Edmunds, for instance.
ReplyDeleteBut for RP to claim at this late date that no one makes wine for him--puhleeease! I myself know winemakers who've been offered contracts with bonuses pegged to Parker points. My understanding is that these are quite common, at least in California. The entire region of Bordeaux seems to have made the same deal, as far as I can tell. What does he think super cuvees of Chateauneuf are about? What an astonishingly silly thing to say. The extra vehemence in his adjectives only betrays his discomfort with the transparent BS.