Tributes for Robert M Parker Jr
profession: understanding man’s role and contribution to the wine. Michel Chapoutier
I visited an estate in Châteauneufdu-Pape just today. The subject of critics came up. ‘How important was Robert Parker?’ I asked. ‘’Parker created Châteauneuf,’ was the reply. Matt Walls, DWWA Regional Chair for the Rhône
Robert Parker has done more for wine lovers the world over than any other human being on earth. A strong statement, but one that I believe is true. He changed an industry that was a bit dusty and stale into an exciting one. He worked tirelessly and is dead serious about his work, but also has great humour. He is fantastically intelligent and immensely knowledgeable, but always humble, enthusiastic and pleasure seeking. And giving pleasure is a wine’s first mandate. He does not know this, but he has taught me, inspired me, encouraged me and kept me alert. Elaine and I downright adore him, and obviously millions of fellow wine hedonists feel like we do.
Manfred Krankl, Sine Qua Non
I have had the privilege and honour to cook for Bob for decades. On many occasions, we have even partnered to raise funds for charity together. I always value his advice and respect his opinions. In the 1990s, Bob would take the train from Baltimore to New York City to organise a five-hour lunch at DANIEL with his friends and let me cook my heart out. I love this man for his lifetime dedication to food and wine.
Daniel Boulud, chef & restaurateur
I was so pleased when, in a Bordeaux breakfast room in 2008, Parker and I literally kissed and made up over a disagreement that no one but us seems to have forgotten. ’That Pavie thing – I overreacted,’ was his very gracious observation.
When I was staying at Château Loudenne for the 1978 vintage, Martin Bamford showed me the first issue of The Wine Advocate, saying he thought it had a great future. He was, as usual, quite correct.
Steven Spurrier
Agree or disagree with his ratings, Parker’s influence has been profound, enduring and global.
Michael Hill Smith MW
Robert Parker holds a unique place in the world of wine – he not only taught a generation of Americans to love it as he does and pay attention to what they found in the glass, he also influenced a generation of winemakers and created a new paradigm for being a critic. His 100-point rating system changed the way we look at wine and will continue to live on, but his more powerful legacy may be the way he democratised wine for both consumers and makers alike.
Elin McCoy, author of The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert Parker and the Reign of American Taste
In personal terms, ‘the horrors of 9/11 hit me hard’, he says. ‘I thought wine journalism and criticism would die. It didn’t. As for the personal lowlights, the death of my father in 1998 followed by my mother’s death in 2002 was difficult. I’m an only child, and when they passed, there were lots of mixed emotions. Had I been a good and loving son; had I ignored them too frequently?’
He is now in full retirement: ‘Because my body was breaking down. I had a failed spinal fusion in 2013, a hip replacement, and multiple knee operations. The last few years of working full-time were increasingly difficult from a mobility standpoint. Navigating airports and those decrepit steps that you know exist in many wine cellars of the world was both painful and challenging. In addition, after nearly 40 years, I couldn’t really accomplish much more, so the decision to retire and sell The Wine Advocate was easy in view of my declining physical health.’
He says he has no plans to write an autobiography. ‘It would be somewhat of a vanity project. Also, I’m not sure younger generations have any interest in the journey I took in the wine world.’
Acquired taste
This wine lover greatly misses Parker’s presence in the wine world, his championing of outsiders and his straight-talking directness and outspokenness. Too much wine writing is respectful, timid, unambitious and PR-friendly; too much wine criticism since his departure, though effusive, seems to lack zest and cut.
He has continued to be outspoken into retirement, attacking the ideological blinkers of the ‘natural wine’ movement, the ‘narrow agendas’ of some wine bloggers and the ‘phoney’ low-alcohol movement – though he says he remains proudest of having championed underdogs rather than swinging left hooks at what he saw as abuses and deceits.
When it didn’t descend to out-and-out caricature, much of the criticism of Parker’s work has been small-minded and partial, and he vigorously rejects allegations that ‘Parkerisation’ meant aesthetic standardisation, or that the ‘Parker palate’ was a reductive set of requirements for ultra-ripe, obvious, lavishly oaked wines. ‘I think wines should have a personality, but reflect their place of origin and be as natural as possible,’ he says. ‘When you think about some of the causes that I have written about extensively, against excessive manipulation, excessive filtration, acidification, manipulation, reverse osmosis and so on, most of these fall right in line with what advocates of natural wine call for. No question the wines I loved the most were the
richest, most opulent, most concentrated, and, to me, the most classic in their ageworthiness, but I don’t think there’s ever been a vintage of merit that was given fabulous ratings by any wine critic based on its austerity, high acidity and herbaceousness.
‘I know I was also accused of liking wines that were over-oaked, but if this allegation is examined, it’s one of the great falsehoods of my career. I love fruit in wine, and if you can’t taste that because it’s marred by an overlay of new oak, to me that wine is an undrinkable, ill-made product. My love of the Rhône Valley, especially the southern Rhône, is because these wines largely see no oak whatsoever, and if they do, it’s in ancient barrels or foudres where there’s absolutely no oak influence.’
Inspiring legacy
Far from being the ‘emperor’ or dictator of taste he is often made out to be, Robert Parker is, in personal terms, direct, sunny, accessible and straightforward, a man whose palate is broad and appreciative as well as astonishingly acute, whose sensual memory bank for both wine and food is almost peerless, and who has by dint of colossal efforts made an unrivalled career from his palate and what he thinks of as ‘an unfiltered talent for wine writing’. His stupendous success, as he himself admits, was ‘one of those phenomena of being the right person at the right time, just before the internet and social media, just as a generation of post-World War II baby boomers were embracing the consumption of wine’.
Good timing, then – but this year’s Hall of Fame laureate also elucidated the wine world for millions, inspiring them to nurture and pursue a passion for wine; and empowered wine producers around the world to try harder and create ever finer wines when nature gave them the chance to do that.
No one individual before or since has changed the world of wine as dramatically, or as beneficially, as Robert M Parker Jr.
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