I just want to have a bit of a moan about Robert Parker and his far-too-great influence on wine prices. Last summer I decided to purchase some wine from the excellent 2007 vintage from the Southern Rhone, and I went for a small Chateauneuf Du Pape producer, Domaine de Saint Prefert (the white of whom we drank at Aria), and their top cuvee, Collection Charles Giraud, which I managed to get for $59 a bottle. At the time Parker gave it a 95-98 rating, and since then he has upped its rating to 100. Anyway, I looked up this wine today, and now it's selling for between $235-750(!) a bottle at auction! Just goes to show that a positive rating from Mr. Parker puts great wines like this out of reach of the ordinary consumer, and this isn't even a classed growth Bordeaux or a big name CNDP like Clos des Papes either. I'm bloody glad I struck while the iron was hot and bought when I did..
This producer actually is one of my favourite from CNDP , Isabel Ferrando is the owner and winemaker, and she produces outstanding wines, the white is made from 80-85% very old clairette vines and is superb, and her reds are typical CNDP blends, with the top cuvee being 60% grenache and 40% mourvedre. I am not, however going to recommend them to you as they are very small production, and I want less competition for their purchase.
On a totally different note, I hate the way my American computer tells me that I can't spell favourite with a 'u', or, much worse, judgement with an 'e'. Utterly retarded.. Who gave them their bloody language anyway?
Sunday, 24 January 2010
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Ahh Parker problems - I see this thread getting a lot of excercise - Im actually in 2 minds about the guy I cant help rebelling against the near universal European hatred of the guy which is too easy a bandwagon to jump on - at the end of the day he built his reputation almost purely on having an amazing palette and knowledge - I also really like his text books - but - and its a big fucking but - his power is outa fuckin control maan, I mean its not really his fault in one respect, obscene price jumps like the cndp you describe is the fault of the market, merchants who price it and the numptys that then pay it which, like you say puts these wines out of the reach of mere mortals like us - but then how is that any different to the top Bordeauxs and Burgundys - what he should answer for in this life or the next is his love for and promotion of insanely over extracted super concentrated alcoholic monsters - I mean putting aside the fact food pairing considerations go out the window how can someone with reputedly such a good palette rate these wines so highly when even a raging alcoholic like myself cant even bother to finish a glass let alone reach for the 2nd bottle - which is of course the mark of any great wine
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