I won't drink my own Parker-rated wines, says California winemaker
January 9, 2008
By Oliver Styles
Robert Parker's influence on Californian wines has forced winemakers to lose their sense of balance, says a cult Santa Barbara producer.
Adam Tolmach of Ojai Vineyard told newspaper the Los Angeles Times that his wines had 'lost their rudder' in trying to please the palate of the American wine guru Robert Parker.
Tolmach, who has made wine for 25 years, says that although he 'got the scores' he wanted, he found his wines moving further away from his own tastes.
Tolmach says he is looking to harvest his grapes earlier and pick less-ripe grapes in the search for balance.
The news will come as little surprise to those who have attacked high-alcohol wines in the past, including veteran wine taster and Decanter columnist Michael Broadbent and Napa Valley producer Randy Dunn.
'Take 20 winemakers, and they are all thinking about alcohol levels,' said Arcadian Winery owner and low-alcohol enthusiast, Joe Davis.
Ray Coursen, a producer in Napa Valley, agreed with Tolmach. He admitted that although there was a 'lot to be said' for bigger wines, they overwhelmed a meal.
'One thing is certain, two people can't share a bottle with dinner,' he said.
The debate was further stirred by Burgundy wine critic Allen Meadows who produces the Burghound newsletter out of Los Angeles.
'I flatly disagree that a 15% alcohol wine can be balanced,' he said.
The LA Times highlighted Meadows' comments on the 2004 Kistler cuvée Elizabeth Bodega Headlands which Parker gave 96/98 points out of 100. According to Parker, the wine was 'bordering on perfection'.
'While the size and weight and concentration are impressive, the texture is anything but elegant,' said Meadows, giving it 86 points.
'Consumers – wake up and get active. Reviewers -please at least include the labeled alcohol percentage in all your reviews, and try to remember that not everyone is spitting,' said Dunn in July last year.
Have your say... To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field
Thank goodness. I can't blame any winemaker for chasing high scores – from this or any critic – or medals from the various competitions, but it's delightful to see someone soapbox in this manner. Wine is wonderful because it's varied and people vary as well – of course we should have differences of opinion.
James MacLellan, Jascots Wine Merchants, London, UK
It is no surprise that a nation of obscenely obese persons weaned on stupendous quantities of (inter alia) corn syrup per person/year become inured to more subtle flavours?
Dr Ken Gillman, Queensland, Australia
The pendulum is definitely swinging back, and there's every chance of it picking up pace in 2008 - Tolmach, Meadows & Co. are absolutely spot on...
Anthony Hanson MW, London, UK
It begs the question: Can wines which are scored as part of system whereby numerous – maybe 50 or more – wines of a common theme (varietal, appellation, etc.) are compared, doesn't it really become a beauty contest which rewards the most obvious wines, and penalizes the most subtle? In a beauty contest, high marks go for big breasts and a dazzling smile. Wit, charm, grace, poise, sense of humor and compassion become missing in the process. Ergo, the wine you'll enjoy with your dinner may very well not be one that scored high in a comparative tasting.
Barry Bassin, Florida, USA
In response to Dr Ken Gillman's comments from Queensland, Australia: Was this an article about award-driven higher alcohol wines or wines with residual sugar?? Did I miss something??? In any case, pass me a donut, I could use another pound or two ...
Danica Stitz, New York, USA
In reference to Dr Gillman's statement above, there is
no denying the link of corn syrup to obesity in the US, but soft drink loving, double airplane seat needing Americans aren't 'guiding' the wine world. It is but one person, whose diet most likely doesn't include much corn syrup (it is not in the water supply). It is not that hard to avoid corn syrup. The rare moment when I have to have a Coca Cola, I grab a Kosher or Mexican version (beet or cane sugar).
Since Bordeaux rules the world (or Decanter's world), I believe that if some major Medoc players become vocal about this over-the-top-style=high scores nonsense, this may lead the way to a more reasonable value system. Then, only if there are still any major players that haven't re-engineered their production to meet the Parker palate.
C Wells, Atlanta, GA, USA
If a winemaker feels compelled to make wines that he/she no longer enjoys, just to please a critic, it tells you all you need to know. Personally, there's no occasion when I would want to drink (as opposed to taste) a 15% alcohol wine. I love wine, but I love life too.
Bob Lindo, Camel Valley Vineyards, Cornwall, UK
Dr. Gillman's profound commentary on the 'obscene obesity' of the American public certainly adds a new level of complexity to this important debate. Instead of addressing the expanding globalization of the wine market and, despite the best attempts of critics such as Mr. Parker, the dramatic recent expansion of the American wine consumer's interests in less alcoholic, more food-friendly and, dare it be said, more terroir driven wines, perhaps we should focus on the cliches that overhang each national wine market? Lets start with Australia, a country in which every wine originates not in the vineyard, but from the spigot of a tanker-truck.
As for the winemakers, I commend Mr. Tolmach's honesty, but it would seem to me that the agency of the winemaker is paramount when considering the abundance of high-alcohol fruit grenades that saturate the wine market. Next in line: the merchant and the consumer. To condemn Robert Parker for his taste is less likely to generate a swing in another direction than, say, the education of the consumer by wine merchants and critics with a penchant for something different.
Jason Zuliani, Dedalus Wine Shop
Mr. Parker is a nice man from Maryland with a recognized expertise for identifying wine flavors and comparing them. He is not a bogey man in control of the worlds (and particularly North America's) winemakers.
He constantly champions Chateneuf Du Pape, but no one speaks of that. He champions French wine and Spannish wine regularly, no one speaks of that.
Wine makers make these higher alcohol wines largely because they drink better younger and therefore they can gouge consumers for wines without the need to sell them wines that require a great deal of ageing to reach their potential. Winemakers all over the world have moved that way. In the upper Duoro, they encourage you to try vintage port young instead of ageing. In Italy they push IGT over Aged Sangiovese.
Winemakers are impatient with the return on investment and therefore make wines that sell better young. That helps meet the need to cover the ridiculous debt expense of winemaking today. And the consumer follows willingly.
Don't blame parker.
Brian P. Mohen, NJ, USA
Hey Dr. Ken,
Have ever tried the obnoxious wines of your country? If there's a correlation of high alcohol, flabby wine to obesity, all the Aussies must look like Sumo Wrestlers. I don't know why Decanter is always pointing out this issue with just the U.S. Aussie wines with the exception of some from the west are even worse. They have port levels of extraction and A.B.V. Also they are some of the most tinkered wines in the world. I'm thinking of starting a tartaric acid distributorship there! If your going to bash the U.S., you need to point out Parkers biggest blunder. Which is the ridiculous scores he gives to Australian juice. Stop giving your Limey brethren a pass.
Josh A Luhn
I have never made wines to please wine writers. I make them for myself and my customers. I was misquoted and my statements utterly misconstrued in the Los Angeles Times article.
We have always strived for balanced wines that drink well with food. It's embarrassing for me to say this, but I think we have a pretty good track record of making flavory, delicious wines that age quite well.
A few of our pinot noirs have been too big for my taste, that is to say, I don't get great pleasure drinking them. To that end we have been experimenting with picking less ripe grapes and are finding the results satisfying. In the last 15 years we began to farm our grapes more meticulously and have throttled the yields to ridiculously low levels. We are discovering that this has given us physiologically riper grapes at lower sugars. We are applying this knowledge to the other varieties we craft as well—attempting to make even better balanced wines that are zesty and full of life and a bit lower in alcohol.
And yes I do think these more nuanced wines will be less noticed by the critics; however, I think there are customers interested in finesse. An interesting fact is that back in 1991 we used to be the last winery to pick a vineyard, and today we are almost always the first. We have always aimed at 25% sugar as an ideal—what changed was everyone else. The norm in the San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara area is now 28 or 29%. Wine makers often wait a month after physiological maturity to pick. The resultant wines are monstrous alcoholic things with no acidity—and if
they aren't low in acidity and high in alcohol they clearly have be manipulated to the point that they have lost any personality.
If you want a little more detail about my thinking look at The Ojai Vineyard website and my older “notes from the vineyard”. Don't believe everything written in the newspaper!
Adam Tolmach, Ojai Vineyard, USA
Hey Dr. Ken,
Suggest you have a visit with Dr. Phil...
Dr. Jon, USA
As a wine salesman, I have always downplayed critics reviews good or bad. I try to encourage my customers to try the wines and decide what THEY think. After all, they are the ones selling to their customers, not Parker, Spectator etc. By talking with their customer, they can get a feel for what style they prefer. One man's Heaven is another man's Hell. It takes guts for a winemaker to make the type of wine that reflects the true character of the varietal instead of coaxing the big score out of his wine making. I applaud Adam Tolmach.
BR, Virginia, USA
Well, I guess we all owe Tim Mondavi an apology for his food friendly wines that sought to be elegant rather than "fruit bombs" about 8-10 years ago. The criticism was totally unjust and he and the winery took it all in stride despite being derided by the press and all the "cork dorks" at the time.
As usual, the Mondavis are innovators and almost always show the way. Thank you once again.
Anon
I couldn't agree with [James] from London, UK more. Having a choice in a wine is what it is all about! As an amateur wine maker from Ohio, using California Must, we won two gold medals at an amateur competition in Cleveland's Little Italy last year. It took a few years to understand what the judges wanted to taste, and we got it “right” last year. That is half the fun of making wine; seeing if you can hit a target. If you don't want a wine at 15%, pick your grapes before the sugar rises. If you want all the flavors of a ripe fruit, pick late, then remove some alcohol via RO. Do any number of things, but stop complaining!
Rick Taylor, Mansfield , Ohio
Your story should have mentioned one person who is doing something about alcohol excess. Darrell Corti, proprietor of Corti Brothers fine grocery in Sacramento, Calif. is refusing to stock "table" wines with alcohol levels above 14.5%! Here is someone who is forgoing actual sales to make a statement about quality.
Andrew Waterhouse, USA
Seriously now, While I was first taken back by Dr. Gillman's horribly generalised statement on obicety in the U.S. He does make an interesting point. The Mcfattys here in the US may be controling certain areas of the wine market, just as skiny, trendy, 20 somethings are controlling other areas... We all have our place and we're all marketed to... What target market does Dr. Gillman fit in? Better yet what size pants?
ADT, St. Helena, USA
I've long been baffled by Allen Meadows's relatively low profile.
His sobriquet, Burghound, is endearing.
Though I've met him only once, years ago and only for a second or two, he came across as genial and modest figure.
Certainly no other Burgundy specialist writing in America is his peer.
Others merely ooze knowledge; he oozes authority.
Robert Parker is, of course, a household word. Allen Meadows is not --- yet --- but he has long since earned the right to be.
I am not a Parker-basher, never have been. Personally I like Bob tremendously, and professionally I have always admired his independent stance. Still, when it comes to Burgundy, the Wine Advocate is simply not Burghound's peer.
Others may not agree. Maybe we should put both names on a primary-election ballot and see which critic gets the most votes.
Not, however, in California.
Howard G Goldberg, New York City
If it's hot, it's hot, or... not!
Why would you need to see the alcohol number on a review?
Wendy Fowler Nunes
On the subject of big, high-alcohol wines, I personally enjoy a wide variety of wines, mostly red and with flavor profiles that fit my mood. If I'm sipping a glass after work or conducting a blind tasting, a bold Parker-style in-your-face California Cab can't be beat (think of something from Bob Foley). If I want something more food-friendly, I may reach for a lighter-style Cab, an Oregon Pinot, a Brunello, a Rioja, or a Chardonnay etc. - something with higher acidity. The key for me is balance when enjoying wine with food. Parker's ratings are usually on target for my taste; at least I know the style he likes and can use his ratings as a guide, which is all any of the ratings are meant to be.
James D. VanHoose M.D.
A couple of points on the alcohol issue..
1. Labelling laws have only in the recent decades forced winemakers to be honest with alcohol on their labels, years of 12.5% (labelled) Barossa reds are long past and I am sure that if you speak to some of the older winemakers they will tell you that the wines were higher in alcohol as it is a natural occurrence for our region and most other grape growing areas of Australia plainly because of the perfect ripening conditions we get.
2. As a Barossa winemaker, not Parker rated not surprisingly, but doing ok we have found that we are able to achieve a balance of elegance of fruit, clean acidity and ripe full bodied structure with no residual sugar. A recently bottled 2006 vintage red blend is sitting at 15.5% with 0.4gms/ litre residual sugar, Ph 3.64 and TA 6.55..... no overt alcohol evident, surprisingly by respecting the fruit and not trying to bash the whole lot up to get the ratings.
I agree, higher alcohols are not appealing especially when partnered to overripe, ever extracted, over oaked and over made structures that try to blow your head off with WOW factor but offer nothing in the way of drink ability and food matching capabilities. Balance can be achieved through slowing down the process and respecting the fruit.
Given our climate it is difficult to get to that tighter balance point, but we will keep working towards the end of the scale that will be what the consumer is looking for, because at the end of the day I can make as much wine as I like but if the consumer is not drinking it, regardless of ratings, I will not have a business!
Cheers and keep the glass half full!
Daniel Eggleton, Winemaker, Creed Wines, Australia
Allow me to digress with some background regarding a sense of balance. Anyone can make wine it has been done for some time now. It is the long. long journey for a winemaker to understand and believe that wines should taste like the place they are from.
Winemaking has been around for hundreds of years, in fact at an archaeological dig just outside of Tehran, Iran, amphora's dating back over 7000 years have been uncovered; and the Persians had running water in their homes before the Americas were discovered.
In my own experience I used to make some “terrifying” wines, much like Smuckers jam, until I had the opportunity to stand in some of the world's great vineyards and taste the grapes at harvest, both young and the mature wines, and especially great wines with a meal. I quickly realized I was not even close.
It was during this 30 year winemaking journey when I also discovered oak, OAK!….wow, wines should taste like oak, (or at least that's what the judging scores were telling us at the time) however, the wines had so much oak they began to taste like furniture and the combination, was, well, terrifying, like licking jam off a wood plank!; but then that is all part of the long journey. In the end it is about balance….to much oak is like to much salt.
I believe people can taste balance; they simply may not have all the mystical “gobbly gook” that winemakers throw about. Bouquet is bit more challenging…however, the wine consumer is knowledgeable and sophisticate and as this discussion is pointing out, slowing turning away from high octane wines; and a thank you to the wine writers who are slowly changing the perception of drink-ability.
Having been a wine judge it is almost impossible to select for “food friendly wines” when tasting 30 or 40 wines, many made in the “steroid style”, your palette simply becomes dumb.
In “un-fooled around with winemaking, all one has is what comes in that little berry, this is especially true when wines are not blended with stuffing, and I mean beyond the traditional definition of blended wines. (It is recognized here, that in the world of wine, some wines are traditionally blended).
Winemaking begins in the vineyard. Hang time is slowly being hung out as so much dirty laundry. Today more winemakers are appreciating maturity and ripeness as two separate, however important, physiological events in the quest for balanced wines.
When winemakers talk about “big” style, is the difference due to a winemaker's style, or is the wine a true reflection of the vineyard at optimum maturity? Some winemakers would like us to believe that they have the magical dust that they can sprinkle about the winery and suddenly texture, structure and bouquet appear. What is often sprinkled about, especially with the cost of a new French Oak barrel (I mean you can purchase 2 oak dinning sets for the price of a new barrel!) so sprinkle in a little oak sawdust or oak chips, or how about the fashionable uses of Mega Purple to add color, texture, and body to lesser vineyards? Can any one judge and identify when this is applied in winemaking?
In closing this digression note that including label alcohol percentage is not relevant since in the US it can legally vary by 1.5%r below 14%.or 1.0% above the stated label level. As someone once wrote, “good wine should taste like the grape and great wine like the place it is from”.
David Lucas, The Lucas Winery, CA, USA
Fellow wine drinkers,
I have been fortunate enough to be a winemaker in California over the past ten years or so.
My wines have never been highly heralded by the popular wine press, sometimes wines I believe to be some of my finest have scored embarrassingly low numbers (75, which I think means it's wet and comes in a bottle)
Alcohol levels have always been a concern for me, I prefer low, but despite working very closely with my grape growers and viticulturists have found it nearly impossible to pick fruit that isn't unripe without achieving these higher levels,14.5% or more. It's all of that beautiful California sun you know, and I wouldn't change that for anything.
Ultimately I would prefer not to manipulate any of my wines, but have had to reduce the alcohol levels in a considerable amount of them over the years.
For my own peace of mind I consider this the equivalent of the Europeans adding sugar to their juice to get higher levels of alcohol.
I have to believe we're all trying to make the best wines possible, with balance being a major consideration.
There many types, styles and prices of wine that should be able to meet everybody's needs. I think one of the most exciting parts of our industry is that we are able to try, taste and experiment with all of these wines and find many that satisfy and please us, so if you don't like one particular wine move on and try another.
Part of my job is to find and meet those people who may like my wines, and in doing so I have to take the rough with the smooth, this ultimately makes me try harder with each vintage to improve on what I believe is my best expression of each vineyard that I have harvested – and that is what I think most winemakers are trying to do.
So please do keep on drinking and enjoying and I'll promise to make more.
JCB , Sonoma County, USA
kudos for the honesty. and for the bob......yes, he is so
mis-understood.......as I have a sinister grin all the way across my face!
cheers to everyone here.
Anon
It's very easy to attribute the shift in styles to the high alcohol issue but this is really an artifact of people wanting wines with lower acidity (higher pH). Later harvesting, I think, is an attempt to make the wines with less true structure so they are accessible earlier. The alcohol does add a sense of sweetness but I think people aren't cellaring as much and are, understandably, more inclined to consume high-end wines sooner. It goes with so many aspects of our modern society. Hell, now I can just fire off an email instead of waiting a week to get my comment across the pond. Cheers!
Tom Farella, Farella Vineyard & Farella-Park Vineyards, Napa, USA
It's not as simple as just picking early to get lower alc. higher complexity in your wine. Ripe phenolics are tough enough to get in warm climates when you pick at traditional brix readings. Bring it in early and you pretty much have to do a complete tannin transplant and/or blend heavily, where your juris diction permits.
Sam Jones, Bermuda Dunes, CA, USA
Another comment from Santa Barbara County: It seems to have become a bit of tradition that, at the winery for which I work, we pick our Sauvignon Blanc one day after Adam Tolmach picks his from a neighboring vineyard (we share a fence line). This is not by design; rather an oddly consistent matter of our respective tastes. Though I'm not sure how Adam determines when to pick; for us, our timing works out to be something on the order of 22.5 degrees bricks--roughly 13.8% alcohol. For my tastes, this works out to make for a delicious wine that I enjoy drinking. Feels good; tastes good.
Meanwhile, when it comes to red grapes, I am often the last to pick in the county. We make a fair amount of a luxury-priced Cabernet-based blend; and, after several vintages working with our fruit, I find I make the best wine from the property when I pick very ripe. I love and enjoy drinking the wine, as does the owner of the winery and vineyard. We feel it is a very honest interpretation of our terroir.
Does Parker like the wines? I'm not sure, as they have yet to be rated. This I can say: We make both racy, low alcohol wines and very rich, ripe and extracted wines. And I love both equally. I really can't see that there's anything wrong with that.
Nick de Luca, Star Lane Vineyard, USA
Dear Mr. Tolmach,
I am very curious as to how exactly your comments were "misconstrued"
and "misquoted" by the L.A. Times. Could you clarify for us what
those remarks actually were that were misquoted and in what context
they were to be interpreted? Is the problematic segment only the one
about "making wines for Mr. Parker?" Many thanks in advance.
Manuel Camblor, New York, USA
I would like to agree with Adam Tolmach's last comment in this discussion - 'don't believe everything you read in newspapers', only I would add 'this includes decanter.com'. Still it can be entertaining.
Robert White, Victoria, Australia
Regulations once required wine to have a minimum, not a maximum alcoholic strength, for protection of consumers, because, as eminent Professor Amerine once pronounced, 30% of wines were diseased some 80 years ago.
An early alleviation, introduced by French chemist, Chaptal, was addition of sugar to grape juice that fermented and increased alcohol content. Significantly, at a gathering of eager oenophiles in Australia, not one recognised the old telltale smell of chaptalization in a tabled wine when asked by visiting luminary, Michael Broadbent. Next, management of the pH (active acidity) of wines obviated development of bitterness, browning of colour and even ascescence (and French and American winemakers also add tartaric acid, the natural acid of grapes).
An apricot or a tomato has more flavour when ripe and we can relate to them, but so it is with grapes — that is an axiom. However, a winemaker can remove some of wine's alcohol nowadays with filters so expensive that only big companies can afford them, but they can then use that alcohol to make those ready mixed fizzy drinks, the province of the young. A real motivation is avoidance of the import duty of some countries on wines above 14% alcohol. Of course, water could just be added to the wine, or more cunningly, to the vines as irrigation just prior to harvesting.
Whatever, if we all keep promoting this theme, politicians everywhere will seize the opportunity to swagger their morality and get extra revenue in one seemingly popular action, whereas they should all be addressing the issue of climate change after decades of inaction!
Ian Hickinbotham, oenologist
I'm curious why no one draws the parallel between the switching of vineyards from overhead irrigation to drip as one of the culprits for rising alcohol levels. Drip allows irrigation of the vines all the way up to the day of harvest. The grapes will have delayed physiological ripeness, and eventually very high sugar. When there's vine stress, the seeds lignify, and the flavors develop.
There are more vineyard acres to be farmed, fewer vineyard management companies per vineyard farming these new acres. Many times Irrigation scheduling has been streamlined so that vines are too healthy, full of green leaves at high brix! Farmers like to see healthy plants. It just means fewer headaches, or a lesser possibility of canopy collapse. There are so many different factors: soils, weather, vine age etc.
25 brix one year is definitely not 25 brix another. More of us are picking on flavors, not numbers, and it's causing delayed picking as we wait for the vines to develop those mature flavors and use up their excess water.
In 2001 I successfully worked with a vineyard manager on controlling the over-watering trend. We stressed the vines, picked 3 amazing Syrah blocks at 22.5 to 23 Brix with fully developed flavors, tannins, and full lignification of the seeds. The resulting alcohol was 13.6%. The average is normally 14.5% there. The wine was delicious, and as a plus, scored very well. I'd love to make that wine every year in every vineyard.
If you have irrigation control over your fruit sources, great! If you don't, the alcohols tend to climb, or at least fluctuate quite a bit vintage to vintage.
Benjamin Silver, Silver Wines
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Thank goodness. I can't blame any winemaker for chasing high scores – from this or any critic – or medals from the various competitions, but it's delightful to see someone soapbox in this manner. Wine is wonderful because it's varied and people vary as well – of course we should have differences of opinion.
