Words matter. These are the best Robert M. Parker, Jr. Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
These are the people who do studies that your carry-out Chinese meals are saturated in fat. I’d just like to meet them! I mean, what do they do for pleasure?
There is nothing in the world like the extraordinary Shiraz and Grenache wines from South Australia. While the most sought-after are undeniably expensive (they’re made in tiny quantities from ancient vines), they are huge, rich and concentrated, and represent some of planet Earth’s most compelling wines.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve developed an appreciation for wines that are immediately gratifying but that can also provide great satisfaction over several years.
As far as vintage Champagne goes, I loved 1990; it’s a great, great vintage. I bought a lot of 1990 Blanc de Blancs Champagne – my favorite kind – and I plan on drinking it all by 2005.
My personal philosophy is, you can be sure of nothing.
I believe that the responsibility of the winemaker is to take that fruit and get it into the bottle as the most natural and purest expression of that vineyard, of the grape varietal or blend, and of the vintage.
I like white wine when it’s young and vigorous. I don’t think you should cellar white wine at all, unless it’s white Burgundy, and definitely not nonvintage Champagne.
When somebody wants to write an article attacking a scoring system or the influence of wine writers, who’s right in the cross hairs? It’s not Steve Tanzer, it’s not Marvin Shanken, it’s me. These other people, it’s not like they don’t have some influence, and I’m more than happy to share it.
The first famous winemaking consultant was the late professor Emile Peynaud, who reigned over Bordeaux throughout the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
Fettuccine Alfredo is dangerous for your health.
I’m an anti-industrial kind of guy.
When I began visiting Bordeaux in 1979, only a handful of writers were there to taste the wines in the spring (and nearly all were British).
The wine world is so big. Yes, there are styles of wines I don’t like. Orange wine, natural wines and low-alcohol wines. Truth is on my side, and history will prove I am right.
The advantage we have as Americans is that we can be fair; we tend to be more open-minded about different styles of wine.
At 66 years of age, I feel about 20.
You can’t simplify my taste and say, ‘Parker likes big wines,’ because it’s just not true.
Generally speaking, when Australian winemakers try to make delicate, European-styled wines of finesse and lightness, the wines often come across as pale imitations of the originals. One exception is Australian Riesling, delicious, dry wines meant to be consumed in their first two years of life.
There is no question that Australia’s most dramatic assault on the world market has been with its value wines. These are generally not from specific appellations but blends made by huge enterprises like Penfolds, Rosemount or Casella Estate – the group behind Yellow Tail.
I’m a common-sense kind of guy.
After years of infertility tests, the best decision we ever made was to adopt, and in 1987, we were bestowed a three-month-old baby girl from an island off the south coast of Korea called Cheju Island.
No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane.
What happens is that the people who are leaders in any field are copied. I mean, there’s a reason why every wine newsletter tends to look like mine. They see someone who’s been successful, so they sort of copy these same ideas.
Trevisan is one of the few Paso Robles producers to recognize the potential of the region’s old-vine Zinfandel, which he blends with Syrah and Mourvedre and labels with fanciful names such as Problem Child, the Outsider and Cherry Red.
Tawny ports have already spent 20 or 30 years in wood – it’s not likely they’re going to improve. On the other hand, they’re not going to get any worse.
In the wine world, crusaders would have wine consumers believe that the only wines of merit are something completely indefinable but which they call ‘authentic’ or ‘natural.’
Wine to me is something that brings people together. Wine does promote conversation and promote civility, but it’s also fascinating. It’s the greatest subject to study. No matter how much you learn, every vintage is going to come at you with different factors that make you have to think again.
It may seem hard to believe – unless you sit down and taste them – but some of the world’s greatest sweet wines are made in the Rutherglen region of Victoria, Australia.
Nineteen-eighty-two is a vintage of legendary proportions for all levels of the Bordeaux hierarchy. In short, it is a vintage which has produced the most perfect wines in the post-World War II era.
Part of life is to live it, and enjoy it, and seize the moments that you find particularly pleasing.
When I put my nose in a glass, it’s like tunnel vision. I move into another world, where everything around me is just gone, and every bit of mental energy is focused on that wine.
I think the Japanese love young, tannic red wines much more than most Americans do. Perhaps it is because Asians have a great fondness for tea, and tea is a very tannic beverage. Therefore a young, tannic red wine is something familiar to an Asian palate.
When I started in 1978, the greatest wine in Spain, Vega Sicilia, wasn’t even imported to the United States. The alleged greatest Australian wine, Penfolds Grange, wasn’t imported to the United States. There were no by-the-glass programs. Sommeliers were intimidating.
If California ever developed a vineyard rating system, Saxum’s James Berry Vineyard would be classified as one of the best.
