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" 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. "

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" 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

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Guy

Kind

" Generally speaking, when Australian winemakers try to make delicate, European-styled wines of finesse and lightness, the wines often come across as pale imitations of the originals. One exception is Australian Riesling, delicious, dry wines meant to be consumed in their first two years of life. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Years

Meant To Be

Try

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Food

Well

Writing

" 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. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

You

Young

" 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 always said your best palate is your own, not mine. I'm a guidepost. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Best

Always

Your

" 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

" The best Chateauneuf-du-Papes are among the most natural expressions of grapes, place and vintage. Chateauneuf-du-Pape vineyards are farmed organically or biodynamically, and the region's abundant sunshine and frequent wind (called 'le mistral') practically preclude the need for treating the fields with herbicides or pesticides. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Vintage

Wind

Place

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Pleasures

Man

Sane

" 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

" Part of life is to live it, and enjoy it, and seize the moments that you find particularly pleasing. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Find

Life

Live

" The advantage we have as Americans is that we can be fair; we tend to be more open-minded about different styles of wine. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Different

Fair

" 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 put my nose in a glass, it's like tunnel vision. I move into another world, where everything around me is just gone, and every bit of mental energy is focused on that wine. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Vision

Wine

" The first famous winemaking consultant was the late professor Emile Peynaud, who reigned over Bordeaux throughout the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Over

Consultant

First

" No scoring system is perfect, but a system that provides for flexibility in scores, if applied by the same taster without prejudice, can quantify different levels of wine quality and provide the reader with one professional's judgment. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Quality

Wine

Perfect

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

About

Age

Feel

" I'm a common-sense kind of guy. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Common-Sense

Guy

Kind