The emperor of wine - Elin McCoy
Anyone who is seriously into wine will know that it’s hard to be more serious than an American, consider the film Sideways for example. These guys don’t just talk about wine, they argue, they debate and they nearly come to blows over the Cab Sauv and such things as the merits of oak ageing versus stainless steel.
The man they all end up referring to though is Robert Parker. For the last twenty five years he has been sniffing the cork and getting people’s backs up, It’s fair to say that sommeliers cower at his approach and wine producers quake with fear. This is a man whose nose could seriously put theirs out of joint. Parker has revolutionised the world of wine, turning it from an upper class pastime to a middle class hobby where everyone has an opinion they want heard.
This book lays bare the rise of this red-nosed colossus dishing all the dirt on the feuds, personalities, payoffs and grubby secrets that make the world of le vin what it is today. Elsin McCoy engagingly tells of Parker’s days writing wine copy, while Neil Young whined in the background and Parker’s dogs violently broke wind under the desk. Colds were unwelcome to a wine expert and Parker was a doughty consumer of Vitamin C tablets as well as antacids to counter the effects of wine on his stomach. When you taste 10,000 wines a year, that sort of precaution becomes a necessity.
The novelist Julian Barnes is a subscriber to Parker’s wisdom, buying what he recommends and eschewing anything else. Richard Nixon was also a subscriber, which must be the only thing Barnes and Nixon could ever agree on. His success is unique and must be in part due to his being American, his attitude and bullishness, in a subject normally restricted to polite murmur and gentle contradiction, is one that has propelled him to the top of his trade from where he still rules. If you don’t make wines that Parker likes, then you would be ill advised to try selling them in American shops.
‘Parker says’, is the argument clincher amongst those in the wine know. His points system the subject of prais and scorn. Reading this book is a must for every wine lover, as well as lovers of good stories.
