A sad day-Robert Parker retires

Read about it here.

Parker was any lawyer's success story-he had a passion for wine and used it to "escape" the stressful, and often-unrewarding legal profession. He popularized the 100 point rating scale, and the concept that critics must be neutral and honest.  He was one of my idols in wine reviewing. I came to understand later (perhaps as his own taste preferences changed) that his high rankings didn't correlate well to wines I liked, but that is not a knock on him--we all must use our own perceptions to honestly state what we think. Everyone's palate and preferences are different.

Kudos to Robert Parker!

How one Oregon Chardonnay didn't age well

We opened a 2007 Amalie Robert Dijon Clones Chardonnay. At 8 years old with impeccable (very cool) cellaring, I expected it to be great. I loved it when it was young.

But the first indication of issues came with the too-golden color. And the wine had some oxidation evident--some sherry-like notes. Most of the Chardonnay varietal character was gone. Rats!

The remains of it sat recorked in the fridge for a couple of days, and upon retasting it, it was, at that point, awful. (For younger wines, this kind of short-term storage for a partially-empty bottle usually works great.)

Most wines are made to be drunk in a few years. However, great Chardonnays (and Rieslings) can age for a decade or more. Maybe 2007 was too poor of a vintage for this length of storage.