It seems to me, dear Walt, that Mrs. Robinson’s distinguished FT partner is

It seems to me, dear Walt, that Mrs. Robinson’s distinguished FT partner is hedging his bets a little. Indeed, he never calls that Pavie a ";techically defective wine,"; but he also makes it clear that he shares Jancis’ view of the wine being hypertrophic and totally unlike Bordeaux. Remember, she was most upset about the Pavie seeming more like Port than anything else...

Again, I go to my comparison between those huge SUVs I see every day on the streets of Manhattan (just yesterday there was a Hummer stretch limo parked outside the building next door to mine, which makes me wonder about the kind of neighbors that may lie there...) Sure, a Lincoln Navigator, for example, may be just fine as far as its design and manufacturing goes, but aren’t we allowed to question its real utility and desirability in terms of our own tastes and needs? I will reiterate: If a wine seems to me overripe, overextracted, overalcoholic and overwooded, my reaction is to dislike it. I don’t believe in scores, since I don’t pretend that wine appreciation (th name says it all) is anything but subjective. Of course, you will hear me say ";Oh, please, get this tacky crap out of my face!!!";

The funniest part is how Mr. Parker immediately calls up the specter of ";reaction"; and starts talking about young upstarts in Bordeaux trying to make the most out of their vintages and--chucjle, chuckle--";terroir.";

You’re absolutely right that this is a tempest in a teapot. I tend to mistrust anyone who tells me they don’t have an agenda, especially if they’re in the wine world. In this case, I believe a pathetic little turf war may be brewing. Should be fun to watch, for at least half an hour.

Oh, about that Anima Negra: True, never really dug the big guy, but I was pleasantly surprised by a bottle of the bodega’s ";AN/2,"; with its cool, minimalist (some would say slightly ";Soviet-looking";) label. Big, yeah, but with nice balance. Of course, it’s helped enormously by the fact that Mallorca is not Bordeaux, so oe’s less driven by traditionalist expectations when tasting it.

M.