Robert Parker Tasting at Wine Future 2009

Posted by Ray O'Connor | Filed under Parker Tasting, Wine Future

Last night’s focus on Garnacha wines by Robert Parker was attended by 530 people, every one as keen as the other to snag a prime spot to sit and taste with Sir Bob of Baltimore. The room was very impressively set out to accommodate the 10,600 glasses (20 per person) for the flights of Garnacha from France, Spain, USA and Australia. Pancho Campo MW introduced Parker as “a beautiful and humble man”, which although I may not have shared similar intimate moments as Pancho did with the man, I definitely got the impression that this was a very straight talking, easy going guy who you would quite happily sink a few beers with. Kevin Zraly was introduced as “the greatest wine educator in the U.S.”. His job on the night appeared to be to break up Parker’s journey through the wines with  questions to the critic on how he would assess the wine in question, which worked quite well.

Robert Parker

Parker is 31 years in the game and he told us there were only a few Rioja wines and a few from Miguel Torres that represented Spain when he started out. He enthused about the new wave of wines coming from regions like Jumilla and Yecla. Comparing the recent trend to places like South America and Italy, he talked about the resurrection of old vineyards and a change from co-operative mentality to artisanal practises.

He felt he was getting a bit of stick for hosting a tasting in Rioja and not showing any Tempranillo wines. In his defence he stipulated that you can only find good Tempranillo in Rioja and this was an international tasting of wines and so focused on Garnacha. The crowd bought it!

The running theme from the 20 wines he showed was that none of the wines are made in new oak, only old foudre or inox, although there was certainly new French oak detected in one or two such as Torbreck Les Amis 2005. He also told us that none of the wines were decanted, to prevent the Garnacha wines which would be susceptible to oxidation, but Pancho Campo later told us that at least one had been decanted. Last little gripe about the tasting; the wines numbered in front of us did not correspond with their number in the book, which meant a scurry through the pages to see where they had been randomly placed as you moved on to the next wine. This proved tricky at times as when Parker eventually got going he barely came up for air, moving swiftly along to the 14th , then 15th wine in succession.

But overall it was a great focus on the qualities of Garnacha from around the world. As opposed to posting lots of tasting notes, I’ll just mention the impeccable Domaine Charvin 2007 (85% Grenache + Syrah, Mouvedre and Counoise). This was pungent in sweet aromas of kirsch liqueur and lavender. It had a deliciously velvety mouth feel with very clean and very pure fruit. Finishing on a fiery , spicy edge this was electrifying stuff!

Parkers prediction on varieties to watch out for in the future included the Mediterranean bunch (not exactly narrowing it down) Pinot Noir and Tempranillo, a final ‘chapeau’ to his hosts. He stated that the best will be those that offer the best value, pushing home the point that you must over deliver on value. He’s optimistic about the future of wine as wherever he goes, Hong Kong, Korea etc.. he sees more and more education, interaction and interest in making wine more fun.

As we began to disperse, he was approached by fans from all angles to sign whatever they could find remotely relevant to him. Great to sit through his master class and understand how he assesses wines.

Tags: , ,

Read more | Comments (0) | November 16th, 2009