There are two things about Mr. Parker’s anti-Jancis comments that have bothered

There are two things about Mr. Parker’s anti-Jancis comments that have bothered me ever since I posted the reply to Juan, above.

The first is this talk about ";reactionaries in Bordeaux"; waging some sort of crusade against the likes of Gérard Perse and the garagiste winemakers in the rest of the Right Bank. I would be very curious about what exactly Mr. Parker opposes to those ";reactionaries"; and what sorts of wines they advocate (ooops, involuntary pun, Freudian slip, or whatever...). Of course, being a bit of a language buff, I can’t help but think of what the antonym of ";reactionary"; is. ";Revolutionary,"; no? Well, having grown up tormented by the consequences of the Cuban Revolution, I can say with enough Conaissance de cause that most ";revolutions"; are simply aimed at replacing one set of dirty politicians, crooks and cops with another.

I do wonder if those ";reactionaries"; are the same ones who dared to pursue a legal case against one of Mr. Parker’s business affiliates in Bordeaux and who have plenty of questions about his own agendas in the region. Was that ever solved satisfactorily?

Another thing that bugs me is this:

";...Why do some people object so strenuously when dedicated young men and women try and take an obscure piece of property,and passionately attempt to produce something special? And somewhat related... what is wrong with these young Bordelais adopting time-honored Burgundy wine-making techiques...cold macerations, malolactic in barrel, an aging of the wine on its lees, and minimal fining and filtering in their efforts to maximize whatever terroir and vintage character that is available?";

Mrs. Robinson, as far as I can tell from her notes and her riposte to Parker on her website, isn’t criticizing any ";time-honored Burgundy winemaking techniques"; adopted by young Bordelais... She simply tasted a wine that was, to her palate, horrible, freakish, undrinkable, or what you will. Alas, I don’t know about all that ";time-honored"; brouhaha Mr. Parker gets so uppity about. As far as I can tell, the virtues and vices of the Guy Accad school of making Burgundy are still cause for much debate.

And Mr. Parker use of the word ";terroir,"; given that his allmighty scores tend to favor wines that wouldn’t recognize terroir if it came up and bit them on the buttocks, seems truly absurd.

On Mrs. Robinson: I felt sorry for her when I read that she was out in California trying Zinfandels. These days, having to put up with the evils such wines are capable of inflicting on nose and palate (believe me, most of the Mediterranean atrocities I constantly complain about are nothing compared to a Turley monster...) that can be a true test of the dedication of any wine reporter. Better she than I, is all I can say.

M.