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" I like white wine when it's young and vigorous. I don't think you should cellar white wine at all, unless it's white Burgundy, and definitely not nonvintage Champagne. "

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" I think the Japanese love young, tannic red wines much more than most Americans do. Perhaps it is because Asians have a great fondness for tea, and tea is a very tannic beverage. Therefore a young, tannic red wine is something familiar to an Asian palate. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Great

Love

Red

" The wine world is so big. Yes, there are styles of wines I don't like. Orange wine, natural wines and low-alcohol wines. Truth is on my side, and history will prove I am right. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Truth

I Am

History

" What happens is that the people who are leaders in any field are copied. I mean, there's a reason why every wine newsletter tends to look like mine. They see someone who's been successful, so they sort of copy these same ideas. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Successful

Ideas

Look

" The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Food

Well

Writing

" When I began visiting Bordeaux in 1979, only a handful of writers were there to taste the wines in the spring (and nearly all were British). "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Only

Spring

Taste

" At 66 years of age, I feel about 20. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

About

Age

Feel

" Wine to me is something that brings people together. Wine does promote conversation and promote civility, but it's also fascinating. It's the greatest subject to study. No matter how much you learn, every vintage is going to come at you with different factors that make you have to think again. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Wine

You

Together

" There is nothing in the world like the extraordinary Shiraz and Grenache wines from South Australia. While the most sought-after are undeniably expensive (they're made in tiny quantities from ancient vines), they are huge, rich and concentrated, and represent some of planet Earth's most compelling wines. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

World

Australia

Earth

" Trevisan is one of the few Paso Robles producers to recognize the potential of the region's old-vine Zinfandel, which he blends with Syrah and Mourvedre and labels with fanciful names such as Problem Child, the Outsider and Cherry Red. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Child

Red

Cherry

" There is no question that Australia's most dramatic assault on the world market has been with its value wines. These are generally not from specific appellations but blends made by huge enterprises like Penfolds, Rosemount or Casella Estate - the group behind Yellow Tail. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Group

World

Yellow

" What's important in a cellar is having wines that have a broad range of drinkability, which California Cabernet does. Wines with a broad range of drinkability give you a lot of flexibility; they are the sort of wines that make me feel secure. I think of my wine cellar as security - if the apocalypse comes, I can just go down to the cellar. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Think

Wine

" When I started in 1978, the greatest wine in Spain, Vega Sicilia, wasn't even imported to the United States. The alleged greatest Australian wine, Penfolds Grange, wasn't imported to the United States. There were no by-the-glass programs. Sommeliers were intimidating. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Wine

Greatest

Spain

" These are the people who do studies that your carry-out Chinese meals are saturated in fat. I'd just like to meet them! I mean, what do they do for pleasure? "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Fat

Pleasure

" I believe that the responsibility of the winemaker is to take that fruit and get it into the bottle as the most natural and purest expression of that vineyard, of the grape varietal or blend, and of the vintage. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Fruit

Believe

Responsibility

" When somebody wants to write an article attacking a scoring system or the influence of wine writers, who's right in the cross hairs? It's not Steve Tanzer, it's not Marvin Shanken, it's me. These other people, it's not like they don't have some influence, and I'm more than happy to share it. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Wine

Influence

Happy

" It's nearly impossible to believe just how provincial the wine world was in 1978, the year I launched my journal, 'The Wine Advocate.' There were no wines exported from New Zealand and virtually none from Australia (including Penfolds Grange, one of the greatest wines in existence). "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Believe

World

Wine

" Back in 1990, there were fewer than 20 wineries in and around Paso Robles, a farming community midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most of the wines produced there were rustic, highly tannic and alcoholic, with little charm or finesse. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Community

Back

Farming

" Although the French appellation system has its roots in the 1923 system created in Chateauneuf-du-Pape by Baron Le Roy, proprietor of the renowned Chateau Fortia, Chateauneuf-du-Pape never developed a reputation for quality or achieved the prestige enjoyed by such regions as Burgundy and Bordeaux. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Quality

Roots

Reputation

" I've always followed the rule that anything worth doing is worth doing excessively. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Always

Worth

Rule

" The premise of Nossiter in 'Mondovino' would have been a lot more accurate when I started writing about wine in 1978 than when the movie was made in 2003. When I started, I was enormously critical of California wines, and I thought the entire wine industry was on a real slippery slope. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Writing

California

Real

" Wine writers have been around for almost as long as there has been wine, but in the past, generally speaking, most wine writing was uncritical and emphasized wine as a romantic, historic beverage. Criticism and comparative tastings were eschewed for fear of offending the trade, which most writers depended upon for survival. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Past

Fear

Writing

" My personal philosophy is, you can be sure of nothing. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Sure

Nothing

Personal

" I'm an anti-industrial kind of guy. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Guy

Kind

" It may seem hard to believe - unless you sit down and taste them - but some of the world's greatest sweet wines are made in the Rutherglen region of Victoria, Australia. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Sweet

Australia

Believe

" In the wine world, crusaders would have wine consumers believe that the only wines of merit are something completely indefinable but which they call 'authentic' or 'natural.' "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Natural

Wine

World

" You can't simplify my taste and say, 'Parker likes big wines,' because it's just not true. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

You

Say

Simplify

" Fettuccine Alfredo is dangerous for your health. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Health

Dangerous

Your

" Nineteen-eighty-two is a vintage of legendary proportions for all levels of the Bordeaux hierarchy. In short, it is a vintage which has produced the most perfect wines in the post-World War II era. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Hierarchy

Vintage

Short

" Tawny ports have already spent 20 or 30 years in wood - it's not likely they're going to improve. On the other hand, they're not going to get any worse. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Improve

Years

Worse

" If California ever developed a vineyard rating system, Saxum's James Berry Vineyard would be classified as one of the best. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Vineyard

System

Ever