Just finished Elin McCoy's The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste. This is an excellent book for the moderate enthusiast of wine, such as myself. It probably covers a lot of ground that is probably quite familiar to grape nuts, but also brings in some interesting characters and points I had heard nothing of. McCoy also, I think, does a good job of accurately situating Parker's astonishing influence in the wine world. There are, in addition to the ease of understanding that the 100-point rating system gives to the overwhelming task of figuring out what wine to buy, a few important reasons for Parker's power:
a) His certainty. Americans like definitives, and Parker tells them whether a wine is good or bad. Now there are entire categories of wine he doesn't like much--lighter-bodied, more acidic reds--and he doesn't rate them highly, regardless of whether they're strong examples of the type. When you're buying a Parker recommendation you are buying the preferences of that one, albeit extraordinary, palate. Which brings me to the second point--
b) The Cowardice of Consumers. You can't blame Parker for the fact that most of the consumers are sheep and don't figure out their own preferences, instead only buying that which is recommended. Part of this is because of (a) above--Parker brings a certainty that amounts to a false "objectivity" to what is a profoundly subjective experience. McCoy mentions the work of Adrienne Lehrer and others in showing that wine consumers have great
difficulty matching the experts' description of wine with the wine itself. In which case, buying a highly rated wine may not mean buying the wine that you yourself like best. Indeed, the whole reason Parker got his start was that he found the highly rated wines of his day overpriced and insipid. We need new Parkers.
c) The Greed of Winemakers. The French were thrilled with Parker's recommendation of the 1982 Bordeaux, a year others were not so thrilled by. They put Parker on the map and pushed his ratings. He has done enormous work in bringing French wine to the attention of the wider world, and indeed, now that he has other reviewers on his
website, he restricts himself to the French wines he loves and California. The Bordelais have twice arranged state honors for Parker, including France's highest award, the Legion of Honor. His recommendations made a lot of them rich, and continue to make huge amounts of money. There are dissenting voices, but overall the process has served the powerful interests well, and put some tiny vineyards on the map. If winemakers as a group had not adopted the ratings system, then i) they would have made much less money and ii) Parker would have far less influence. Money talks.
