Primeur tastings in
Bordeaux are a risky business - as we have written here wit eye
witness reports for 2001 and 2002. In March 2004, the young wines of
2003 were pre-tasted. And an "atlantic war" broke out between Master
of Wine Jancis Robinson and guru Robert Parker.
Listen to Robinson:
‘Completely
unappetising overripe aromas. Why? Porty sweet. Oh REALLY! Port is
best from the
Douro not St
Emilion. Ridiculous wine more reminiscent of a late harvest
Zinfandel than
a red
Bordeaux with
its unappetising green notes.’
Her note: 12/20,
devastating! And then pay 70-80 €?
Parker who put in in
the 94-96 range, surfed quickly to Robinson’s website,
www.jancisrobinson.com, and stated wrily that the Pavie ‘does not
taste at all as described by Jancis’. Then came the competitor's
revenge: Jacis' notes, he said, ‘are very much in keeping with her
nasty swipes at all the Pavies made by [Gérard] Perse and mirror the
comments of…reactionaries in Bordeaux’.
Robinson was quick to
reply: I am impartial, the wine was tasted blind, and ‘I have
witnesses.’ She refuted any personal agenda against Pavie owner,
Gerard Perse, asking: ‘What is the difference between a nasty swipe
and a critical tasting note? Perhaps the former does not chime with
the most powerful palate in the world while the latter does?’
‘Wine assessment is
subjective,’ countered Robinson, as more critics entered the fray. ‘Am
I really not allowed to have my own opinion? Only so long as it agrees
with Monsieur Parker’s it would seem. I do wish we could simply agree
to differ.’
Not getting enough of
it, Parker surfed back to his own site, www.erobertparker.com,
saying that Robinson knew what she was tasting due to the distinctive
Pavie bottle that ‘even when covered up, stands out like a black sheep’.
We know a lot of such black sheep from Bordeaux, though!
Maybe we should
listen to a third voice: Wine International’s Charles Metcalfe,
speaking on
www.wineint.com,
after tasting Château Pavie blind, giving it 90-94 out of 100. ‘It is
a very big, bold style,’ he said, ‘It’s not a traditional
Saint-Emilion, but as a wine it works.’ But he added that en
primeur samples varied, as discovered by Robert Joseph and Derek
Smedley who also tasted the wine. The following seems to be a wise
note: the wine ‘has very high tannins indeed, daunting and
mouth-drying at present. And there is a great deal of oak flavour. But
behind all this lies fresh, raspberry fruit, with length and perfume.
Not one to approach for a long time, but should make an excellent
bottle in time.’
Note, to that
www.1855.com
says of this wine: "rich and explosive - the nose reminds us of a
great Port wine..."
Maybe, this is "old
style Bordeaux - St. Emilion", made for the next decade?
"
Onthouden we toch dat hier naar "een grote Porto" verwezen wordt.