Reaction to the Latest Australian Edition of Parker’s Wine Advocate and more

 

Last weeks article which reviewed the latest Australian edition of Parker’s Wine Advocate certainly caused some reaction. Without exception, all the emails I received were in agreement with the points I raised in the article. However it was a different story on Mark Squires Forum which is hosted on the eBob website where things got very heated, but more about that later.

 

One of the most interesting comments occurred during an email exchange with Rolf Binder (of Rolf Binder/Veritas wines). Rolf said “Interesting point about Mt Mary! It’s like giving a bland piece of fish to a curry lover; it’s just not his style. Personally the wine is not my style either, but others love it. Which brings me to this point: because one person (or more) likes the wine does another, who has a huge public voice have to like it?  What if James Halliday woke up one morning and didn’t like it, would there be the same reaction?

 

As one French critic, once said about ‘Bobby’, “the French wine industry was there before him and it will be there after him!”

 

It has been on for young and old on a number of wine forums around the world as people digest the contents of the Australian edition of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.

 

The first serious reaction occurred on the Mark Squires Bulletin Board. Jay Cain, also known as Golf and Pinot Nut, read my article and posted a rather provocative post on Mark Squires Forum.

 

According to Mark Squires, in a later topic that was subsequently removed, he said "Mr. Cain is part of a group of malcontents who consist of folks banned from other boards (primarily not this one, although an instigator stirring the pot was in fact a bb member banned from here).”

 

For the record, when Squires refers to “… (an) instigator stirring the pot was in fact a BB member banned from here,” he is referring to me. Let me state unequivocally, the purpose in writing the original article was to present a balanced perspective of Parker's latest take on Australian wines, in exactly the same way as I have endeavoured to write balanced articles on both Jeremy Oliver's and James Halliday's latest books. There are both positive and negative comments in all these stories and none of them have been written with the intention of “stirring the pot.” In addition, I had absolutely nothing to do with Jay Cain’s decision to start the thread on Parker's site but once again, that does not stop Mark Squires letting the facts get in the way of his comments. (Calling him out on this exact point was the catalyst for my being banned from his forum in the first place.) But that is not what this article is primarily about.

 

Fairly early in the piece, Robert Parker actually contributed to the topic. Whilst Parker explained exactly why he had reviewed Mount Mary, he went on to state “…but there are hundreds of petits chateaux in Bordeaux that I review routinely that retail for under $15 that have more quality than what I tasted from Mount Mary.”

 

By this stage, especially after Parker’s last comment about Mount Mary, it was on for young and old. The vast majority of the Australian contributors were in full support for Mount Mary. Joining them were an assortment of posters, some of which were clearly anti-Parker and some of whom just felt that he had got it wrong on this occasion.

 

On the other side of the great divide, there were those that always agree with Parker, as well as those that felt he had valid reasons for his comments. This thread certainly showed there were two sides to the story, and deliberate stirring aside, whilst there were some excellent points made, a lot of the comments come down to individual, personal tastes in wine.

 

After four pages of posts, the thread was finally locked, primarily due to the ‘heat’ Jay Cain had been generating. In some ways, the decision was reasonable but the debate certainly still had merit and had not run its course. It was unfortunate it was closed down.

 

Another Australian, Adam Catford started a new thread that posed questions to Parker in relation to Australian Riesling. Adam was silly enough to actually use the word “TORB” in his post, and the thread was quickly deleted. The fact that it had nothing to do with the previous Cain fracas and was phrased politely made no difference, it was nuked. Now one could almost be excused for thinking that if you criticise Parker your post gets deleted, but in reality, that is not the case.

 

Another Australian, Paul Taper then started a thread which asked Does Mr Parker Taste wines blind? This thread has been going for four pages and like the Mount Mary thread, there are those who are for and those who are against. There are those that state that Parker should taste blind and those that feel he is quite justified when he conducts his tastings openly.

 

The thread was hijacked but one person (Steven Plotnicki) who has a reputation of arguing for the sake of it, and this thread also became heated. At the same time, Paul Taper took a lot of flack for asking the question in the first place; with some players making personal attacks and unnecessarily getting stuck into him. As one could expect, he was not happy about it; his thoughts and the Australian reaction to this thread can be found in this thread on StarForum.

 

Now getting back to Mark Squires comments in the thread that he nuked, in relation to Jay Cain, he also said “Mr. Cain and others deliberately started a thread designed to cause trouble.

 

They (the other trouble makers) are all talking now too about signing onto this forum with fake names like Ben Dover and IP Feely. Imagine that a winemaker, Randy Sloan, who is actually a member here, actually suggested that Cain sign onto this forum with a fake name! He has been terminated as well, as has Bud Carey for like reasons.

Breaking into our system under false pretences of course is a violation of our terms of service. I consider it actionable. It might be worse than that, too. If this continues, it may finally be time to sue someone and see if they still think this is funny.”

 

Whilst I don't disagree with Squires comments in regard to Jay Cain's motivation, I certainly do have to laugh at some of his other comments. Firstly, Jay Cain started the thread all by himself, there was no conspiracy and as already stated, I had no involvement in it.

 

Anyone who read the thread (on the other forum)  that Squires was referring to, could see that the people were joking; what else could they be doing with names like Ben Dover and IP Freely, yet Squires talks about breaking in, suing people and he banned two members of his forum for cracking jokes on another forum. Readers can make up their own minds about this reaction.

 

The bulletin board on Parkers website is the busiest in the world; it is a pity that people can not debate the issues without getting personal about it. It’s also a pity that threads get hijacked by people who want to argue for the sake of argument, rather than to discuss the topic and possibly learn something. Likewise, it is a shame these threads keep getting locked or deleted because the moderator doesn’t like the topic or other aspects mentioned in the posts. The medium can be controlled, but peoples’ thoughts and feeling cannot be controlled by others, and these debates will continue. The issues are too “hot” and will remain that way as long as Parker is the worlds most influential wine critic.

 

Finally, one can only wonder how John Middleton of Mount Mary feels after this bucketing, but in reality it is will probably have no impact on his sales; the people who like his wines are unlikely to be Parker followers. In the end, it’s all a matter of personal taste; your own!