Posts Tagged ‘Robert Parker’

Jun 30, 2006

We Need More From Wine Reviews

Can you spare 10 characters in your reviews of wine? That’s really all it would take, a measly 10 spaces in a wine review to add the alcohol level of the wine under consideration. And by adding this bit of information the consumer would be served mightily. I started thinking about this need for stating alcohol content in reviews upon reading Robert Parker’s reviews of Paul Hobbs wines on MSNBC.com. For example:"2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 93 points. A dark…

Jun 14, 2006

Depending on Score Whores: A Cautionary Tale

A Cautionary Tale What’s the impact of building a winery marketing strategy that relies on receiving only great scores and ratings from the most important wine critics? Consider this cautionary tale. A few years ago a very fine winemaker decides it’s time to make their own wines, rather than make someone else’s wine. So the winery is born. Well, actually they lease space at another winery to make about 400 cases of wine. They get fruit from great vineyards and…

Jun 12, 2006

A New Venue For Robert Parker

It’s not unprecedented but it is unusual. Robert Parker’s agreement to write a weekly column for Business Week Magazine is a fairly rare even for the most powerful wine critic on the planet. Since beginning publishing his Wine Advocate newsletter he has taken up very few gigs outside that venue. He wrote fleetingly for both Wine Enthusiast Magazine and for Food & Wine Magazine. But most of his efforts have gone into his newsletter. So bringing on Parker to write…

Jun 1, 2006

Turley-Parker-Ego

Helen Turley, America’s most famous "consulting winemaker", is again facing a lawsuit involving a client. This doesn’t really surprise me, for a number of reasons. What is interesting however is the mindset that would allow a person to agree to Ms. Turley’s terms for her participation as a consulting winemaker: -Agree to spend a huge, top-end sum of money on both vineyard development and building a winery to Turley’s exact specifications(vineyard development I can understand…But why spend huge amounts on…

Mar 13, 2006

To Review or Not To Review

You’ve done it. You’re first vintage is about to be released. Sure it’s only one wine, but it’s one good wine and you’ve worked your rear off and spent a lot of time and coin on making it. You’re a vintner. All you have to do now is sell it. The question is: Do you send your wine out to the media for review and critiques? Randy Sloan, Napa Cabernet producer and owner of Match Vineyards, as well as proprietor…