Pinot Envy........
The Emperor of Wine The Rise of Robert M. Parker, JR And the reign of American Taste
Elin McCoy Ecco, 2005
Mondovino A Film by Jonathan Nossiter Think Film 2005
Both these vehicles of criticism are centered on wine writer, Robert M. Parker, a lifetime resident of Monkton in Baltimore County and his journey from the law to international notoriety and fame.
The book is a chronicle of Parker's life to date by a fellow wine writer. The movie a lengthy discourse on the ills of modern winemaking and marketing by a director whose objectivity and balance are non-existent. The movie centers on Parker, his influence on the wine market and people whose lives he has affected played out as a Marxist piece of bad propaganda.
Before I continue, Time out for the an long disclaimer: From 1978 to
1985, I spent many Friday nights at Mr. Parker's house as part of a sounding board he set up to calibrate the accuracy of his judgments. I also spent other nights at the Parker's and Parker spent time at winetastings I sponsored at my Woodlawn apartment, Dalesio's restaurant, and Chez Fernand's and other venues. Parker introduced me to people I eventually worked for in the wine business. I watched him grow as person and saw how scrupulous he was in conducting his business. Although I rarely see him these days, he is still a friend even though he never reviewed one of my Winemayven Selections, (insert smiley)That said, Ms McCoy's 300 pages of biography has captured Parker, generous, affable but wary of criticism, even before he scooped the wine world on the high quality of the 1982 Bordeaux. To those not in the wine world, Red wines from Bordeaux are the Rosetta stone of older wine collectors and the baby-boomer yuppies anxious to own everything worthwhile in the universe. So when Parker announced that the 1982 vintage was most collectable, a combination of demand fuelled by major wine stores and nay saying from other writers led Parker to leave his day job and begin work on his book on Bordeaux. Parker was able to branch out from his Wine Advocate mailed every other month to subscribers to other venues. Often he used the language of his reviews in a magazine article edited to suit the articles theme. This made it easier to expand quickly. He continually prefaced his reviews with the words "As I told you in Vol 6 Number 4, the Chateau Vonce estate is beginning to make........." "The As I told you", reminded his readers that he found the wine first or at least early on. As a businessman he wanted to be a wine geek's publication of choice. Even his thin skinned responses to critical comments usually had a David versus Goliath resonance. Until Parker, wine criticism was a world of bull and avarice. Bob, Finnegan and some of the early newsletter writers were champions of the consumer and not lifestyle mavens. If you've ever tasted a wine in Europe and then back in the USA you'd realize that the wine was mishandled. By encouraging Kermit Lynch, Marc DeGrazia and other importers who knew that reefer was not just another word for a joint, Bob raised the level of how a wine was handled. When the Wine Advocate started you could not find a rose in Maryland that was less than 3 years old; great vintages were not delivered to Maryland because wholesalers still had mediocre vintages in inventory. Parker created demand.
All in all for those unfamiliar to Parker's rise from drinking coke at the feed store to downing Dom with Charlie Rose this book is a good read. I would have like to see some more of our Friday night crew like Geoff Connor, Steve Sheriff and Mitch Pressman mentioned .
On the other hand, Nossiter's screed is a mean spirited, anti-American attack on Parker and celebrity winemaker Michel Rolland. Nossiter had some valid points but his editing was so slanted I am embarrassed we share some of the same political views. It's the National Enquirer masquerading as the New Yorker. Parker and Rolland have influence in the wine world because consumers like the wines Parker praises and Rolland consults for. To me some consumers are overly finicky and fanatical, not buying any wine scored below 95 points or wanting to buy the entire allocation a store is allotted; and people in the trade don't try to acquire and then sell wines not praised by either the Wine Advocate or the life-style oriented commercial Wine Spectator. But most of the wine sales made in the USA are not the artisan wines coveted by the Advocate or Spectator subscribers, but everyday quaffs that make the day a bit brighter. Thanks to Robert M. Parker, Jr those wines are fresher and more likely to be devoid of spoilage then before he began his journey.