Kort nyt maj 2010

3. maj 2010

Indsigelse vedr. citaterne herunder fra 1. maj:
Jeg har i dag modtaget:

"Hej Søren.
Jeg har bemærket din noget ensidige 1. maj kommentar/indlæg om Parkers Bulletin Board. For fuldstændighedens skyld kan du lige læse nedenstående der begrunder hvorfor beslutningen om medlemsadgang er taget (se nedenfor).
Jeg kan i det hele taget ikke forstå hvorfor du lægger plads til den ensidige og lettere hadske anti-Parker bandbule fra en enkelt indlægsholder. Du bør sørge for en nuanceret og vægtet debat/kommentar."

Jeg forstår udmærket indsigelsen, og jeg var faktisk en del i tvivl, om jeg skulle bringe indlægget. Når jeg valgte at gøre det, var det fordi det (noget ekstremt - indrømmet) er udtryk for den anti-Parker stemning, der har bredt sig de sidste par år - ikke mindst efter hans udsagn om Chateauneuf du Pape årg. 2007.
Der er vel noget om, at Parker er lidt for fokuseret på "concentrated, fruit bomb, heavily oaked wines."
I artiklen, der mest omtaler Bordeaux-vine, hævdes det, at disse vine har skiftet karakter for at opnå høje Parker point. Jeg kender ikke nok til Bordeaux-vine til at vurdere påstanden, men jeg er helt overbevist om, at noget sådant er sket i Chateauneuf du Pape. Jeg har mødt adskillige producenter her, der siger rent ud, at det er det, de går efter med deres specialcuvée(r).

Personligt har jeg altid med interesse studeret Parker noter, men er nok blevet mere skeptisk det sidste par år. Jeg lagte på et tidspunkt et af flg. skilte ind på visse sider (dansk udgave):

Disse skilte har jeg fjernet på de sider, hvor jeg har været inde og ændre noget gennem de sidste måneder.

Jeg blev i mailen opfordret til at bringe begrundelsen for at indskrænke adgangen til siden. Jeg havde bragt et link til denne begrundelse, men måske skal man være "subscriber" for at se siden. Derfor bringes begrundelsen i spalten t.h.

Back in November, 2001, we launched eRobertParker.com with the goal of creating the world's best wine information site. Our objective was simple. We wanted to provide independent reviews of the best wines in the world and encourage open discussion of them to the benefit of the participants. Toward that end, we invited Mark Squires to bring his Wine Talk Bulletin Board over to the site and offered it openly and freely to all, subsidized by our subscription revenues. Virtually overnight the board became the Internet's premier forum for wine discussion. It has grown dramatically in size and stature as the population of wine lovers grew.

At the outset, we asked Mark to maintain his philosophy of insisting on real names and email addresses. This approach sought civilized, non-commercial discussion of wine. Over the years the Internet and the board have changed. Supervising the huge volume of posts has become increasingly time consuming and expensive. At the same time, we've noted that the subscriber-only forums we created some time back are increasingly popular and much easier to manage. Moreover, we're committed to providing even more functionality and greater coverage of wines for our subscribers in the near future. This will require us to spend wisely.

We are a small company with limited resources and, after months of deliberation, we've come to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of the people who count most - our subscribers - that we change our policy with regard to the bulletin board. On April 27, the entire Mark Squires' Bulletin Board on eRobertParker.com will become a subscriber-only forum, open only to subscribers of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate or eRobertParker.com. A notice to our print subscribers on how to continue/gain access to the subscriber-only board was sent with the April print edition.

Once an eRobertParker.com subscriber is logged onto the site they can access the BB but they must logon to it in order to post.

Change is always difficult but, like this action, often necessary. We are sorry to say goodbye to those posters to Mark Squires' Bulletin Board who are not subscribers, and who have made valuable contributions. We will miss you, but our overwhelming goal is more focused support and assistance to our subscribers, who are our bloodline of support and make all the fascinating features of the bulletin board possible. We look forward to better serving our loyal subscribers through a more focused effort on them.

As always, we wish each and every one of you all the best in wine and life.

1. maj 2010

Jeg ved, at enkelte danskere har været aktive på Mark Squires' Bulletin Board, og formentligt har også været en del været passive besøgende. Nu skal man være subscriber for at deltage:

27. april på eRobertParker.com "Effective tomorrow the Mark Squires' Bulletin Board will be available only to eRobertParker.com subscribers. Click here to read our announcement about that change."

Det var der selvfølgelig mange der blev sure over. Blandt andre en Richard Jennings, der hælder en ordentlig skidtspand ud over Parker. Under overskriften "Rober Parker is a reeking pile of pus" (det lyder ikke spor rart) skriver han på sin blog bl. a.

"The bottom line is that people, like me, who used to look up to the man as a consumer advocate and reliable authority (at least on regions that he has long admired, like Bordeaux and Chateauneuf du Pape, if not on regions that he never demonstrated any understanding of whatsoever, like Burgundy), can now, increasingly, only see him as a narcissistic zombie, desperate for our attention but lacking any useful and reliable information to give us in a world where there are dozens of more accurate and reliable critics and wine experts.".......

"The first move, April 27, was to suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, essentially shut down the wine world’s most active bulletin board, limiting activity on the Mark Squires board on eRobertParker to only those with paid eRobertParker subscriptions. As a result, people who have added much content to that site over the years—content that others, who have no particular interest in Parker’s predictable take on wines, came there on a regular basis to read—now have no access to what they’ve written without paying Parker for the privilege."......

"The major beneficiary of this move is likely to be an independent wine board that got going over a year ago and that now has 2700 registered participants, including lots of refugees from the Squires board from the purges that preceded this latest move. The board is called WineBerserkers, and it is moderated in a very light and fair style, in stark contrast to that of the politburo that has policed the Squires board over the past year."

Jennings benytter i samme post lejligheden til at give denne bredside til Parker:

"As to the Parker 98-100* scores for barrel samples, suggesting that these are the greatest wines Parker ever tasted in his career (hey, what about those ’07 CdPs that were supposed to be the “most compelling vintage of any viticultural region” you ever tasted?), these fly in the face both of good taste and common sense. Personally, I think high end Bordeaux itself has been in serious decline over the past 10 years, as a result of having affixed itself so tightly to Parker’s preferences and made itself so dependent on his ratings. Bordeaux-the-commodity made its pact with the Devil (RMP) many years ago by altering traditional winemaking techniques to produce the more concentrated, fruit bomb, heavily oaked wines that Parker has lavished with high scores. Even former stalwarts like Cheval Blanc have climbed on board the Parker juggernaut. The result are wines that have become indistinguishable from big Napa Cabs that have likewise been Parker darlings, even though they’re increasingly out of balance, impossible to enjoy with food, and have prices based more on their Parker scores than any intrinsic quality. I stopped buying and going out of my way to taste these wines a few years back, so Parker’s extreme gushing this week over the latest batch of Bordeaux in this style has no effect on my wine habits other than to confirm that the region has become a toxic mess of dangerous proportions. People with more money than taste will pay ridiculous amounts for these wines thanks to Parker’s inflated scores, and Bordeaux-the-commodity will see some short-term gains. I predict, however, that those gains will not last, and that others who really love wine—authentic, balanced, wines of place–will continue to drop out of the Bordeaux market in increasing numbers. I predict that Bordeaux ’09 (and other similiarly hyped vintages) will become a bubble, not unlike the sub-prime housing market bubble the world has been suffering for the last couple years, and that, ultimately, those who spend ridiculous sums on these kinds of commodity wines will end up holding toxic assets—stuff that is as undrinkable and undesirable as the Aussie crap Parker overhyped up until just a few years ago."