Robert Parker,...............When the sheperd loses its way the herd follows........

Although I never met Mr. Robert Parker, I bumped many times into him, mainly reading professional literature, this being the wining and dining paparazzi. I have read his magazine for the first time, I guess around 1995, this was the time I started Leafing through the mount of magazines my wife dumped on my desk every so many weeks....this formy persual and further eductation, at least that's what she attempted to achieve. 

Parker's magazine was a sober, simple, straigth forward magazine on wines, especially French growths were described and remarkably frequently Bordeaux wines.

To express his opinions, latest discoveries, recommendations he had developed a rating system by, in short, ranking very good wines - of course Parker's taste - by 5 bottles and not to be drank wines by only 1 botlle... and everything in between. Simple and clear to every reader.

Through I suspect single minded, tenacious, methodical and foremost very hard labour many magazines were over time sold especially in the English speaking world, not hindered bu any, let alone fierce competition, Mr. Parker's publication gained steadily foothold and slowly become a force in opinionating wines which as very drinker will know a very personal and subjective business, as tastes, smells, tongues etc are in numers and by nature stubbornly personal.

However people even the most sophisticated, higher educated, mulicultural, cosmopolitan, well moneyed.... apparently were in need to be led by a "wine shepherd" like guru to be guided bu little 5 bottles through the complexities of mothers earth's vineyard.... and in fac having their unique and private tastes grouped, translated in to specific Parker palates ranked by little bottles.                 

                                

The direct result of all this was that especially the Bordeaux winegrowers started to produce (blend) their wines trying to approach the by Parker magazine standardized wine taste, to assure themselves of easier wine sales into the enormous English speaking world markets.

I think I have made it clear that this approach, maybe not completely intentional and perhaps complemented by strong dose of luck at the right time dropping at the right place etc. etc., was embedded in fact for about 2 decades in what now is the world’s wine producing and drinking culture. Basically it is not the natural way to find one’s right bottles of wine, and takes a lot out of the many adventurous routes when one is exploring the wine world. In fact who needs somebody to describe one’s own taste?

 I wrote here above that taste is a very personal and impossible to be changed and most important element in the wine tasting and selection process.Think about this!

Emerging new wine platform like VintoVino prefers to open up, broaden, expand the wine enthusiast’s scope, let them leisurely surf over the site to discover their own sources, vineyards and basically let them develop and pair their tastes to their own discoveries…not somebody’s publicized taste but their own taste.

I very recently read that “Eric Boissenot without doubt one of the world’s most important oenologists, working and based in the Medoc, a man whose particular interest is the influence of soil on wine quality” writes “The bigger focus on Bordeaux and the influence of Robert Parker have definitively contributed to the prosperity to our region and thus to the possibility of fine tuning our winemaking”.

A free translation of the above that Parker and Bordeaux maybe not like but surely love each other and this for obvious reasons.

But it gets worse…. A I read a few pages further in the same publication, a highly esteemed professional trade magazine, Quote: “I also consult for producers who sell their wine at 3 Euros per bottle, even they do not have great terroirs. But what I will never do is to try to convince them to work with me by saying I will make your wine great, I will make it loved by Parker’s” Unquote

And this is exactly what did happen over now nearly 2 decades, as confirms the following quotation in a strong way; Quote:” If I see a region coming up in force in Bordeaux it will be the satellites of Saint-Emilion. There are a lot of great but undiscovered terroirs around and within Saint-Emilion. Unfortunately, the majority of the producers still wants to make wines that please Robert Parker” Unquote.   And this exactly the process which we want to weed out by opening up through our platform to markets in such a way that nobody is preconditioned to drink a predestined wine…. as we at VintoVino believe that tastes are not identical the same but are unique.

There are millions of wine loving tongues and also more than 40.000 of vineyards and winemakers who no can find each other even if they wish so on a personal and or more social basis through VintoVino and this thanks to the possibilities offered by the wonders of the world wide web.

M.J. San Martin