Does Parker have too much power?
I thought this was an interesting article. I don’t read Parker, but I am aware of the influence he has on the wine market. Ratings are everything and he has them. Keep your eyes open the next time your in the wine section at the super market for “Rated bla bla bla by Parker.” The influence he’s had on chaging the way winemakers make wine is amazing. But now, there seems to be a reaction happening.
“Adam Tolmach of Ojai Vineyard told newspaper the Los Angeles Times that his wines had ‘lost their rudder’ in trying to please the palate of the American wine guru Robert Parker.Tolmach, who has made wine for 25 years, says that although he ‘got the scores’ he wanted, he found his wines moving further away from his own tastes.‘I’d stopped drinking my own wines,’ he said.Tolmach says he is looking to harvest his grapes earlier and pick less-ripe grapes in the search for balance.
The news will come as little surprise to those who have attacked high-alcohol wines in the past, including veteran wine taster and Decanter columnist Michael Broadbent and Napa Valley producer Randy Dunn.”