On the Parker scale

THE WINE CLUB

There's a slightly scurrilous saying that could be re-quoted as "Those who can, do; those who can't "" write!" Not fair at all to the fourth estate, particularly when it comes to wine writers (including yours truly) who are, after all, merely sharing some of their hard-gotten knowledge.

There's actually an enormous amount of writing on wines internationally (but precious little on wines in India) "" starting from magazines to books to guides and internet sites; the best-known writers have huge audiences and some even a cult status not unlike that of rock stars!

Probably the most influential of them all is Robert M Parker, a 58-year old American lawyer whose wine knowledge was self- taught "" and who caused a revolution in the way wines across the world are made, sold and talked about.

Parker has been bringing out the hugely influential monthly magazine The Wine Advocate which has 45,000 subscribers in the US alone since 1978 (you can subscribe by going to www.erobertparker.com), and has written a number of books including Robert Parker's Wine Buying Guide, Bordeaux: A Consumer's Guide to the World's Finest Wines, and Wines of the Rhone Valley. Buy them (if you must) through Amazon rather than Parker's website as prices are considerably lower in the former.

Parker's life has been written about in some detail by Elin McCoy in The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker and the Reign of American Taste ($17.13 on Amazon) "" a fascinating account of the world's most influential wine critic and taster.

Parker has also been demonised in any number of articles and latterly in the film Mondovino for dictating wine tastes around the globe., In 2004, he got into a much-publicised dispute with Jancis Robinson (more on her another time) about rating the 2003 Château Pavie, a St-Emilion premier grand cru that Parker has been especially keen on ever since it was taken over in 1998 by a new proprietor, Gerard Perse.

Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him. Parker practically invented the 100-point scale (now widely used by many wine magazines worldwide) where a the score starts at 50 points. A score of 90 on the Parker scale induces many consumers to buy the wine concerned with no second thoughts, and the resulting demand always leads to a sharp increase in the price of that wine.

No wonder that many wine companies started crafting their products to imitate the wines Parker finds good "" what one writer has called "alcoholic fruit bombs".

Indeed, Parker has a distinct style of writing tasting notes (witness his comments on the 1998 Château Leoville-Barton: "...opaque purple, muscular, full-bodied", displaying "impressive concentration, chewy, highly extracted flavours of black fruits, iron, earth and spicy wood") that has almost defined the genre.

His great attraction was "uncorrupted expertise": no free bottles; no complimentary air travel; no cosy guest-rooms at Château Margaux (samples are brought to his hotel room); no chummy dinners with the countess. Parker reports on what's in the bottle, courageously unconcerned by the reputation on the label or by the affability of the wine-maker.

Interviewed several years ago, he is reported to have said: "I don't give a shit that your family goes back to pre-Revolution and you've got more wealth than I could imagine. If this wine's no good, I'm gonna say so." This sort of stuff really shook up the staid and inbred world of wine in the 1980s and 1990s and cemented his reputation.

At the end, the proof of the wine is in the drinking: just try any wine rated over 90 on the Parker scale and you will know what I mean. A votre sante to all.

(al_chandra@vsnl.net)