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" 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. "

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" 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

" As I've grown older, I've developed an appreciation for wines that are immediately gratifying but that can also provide great satisfaction over several years. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Great

Appreciation

Over

" 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

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Best

Always

Your

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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 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

" After years of infertility tests, the best decision we ever made was to adopt, and in 1987, we were bestowed a three-month-old baby girl from an island off the south coast of Korea called Cheju Island. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Decision

Baby

Best

" My first trip to Japan, in 1998, began with an enormous crowd of Japanese paparazzi and television crews, all waiting for me to clear customs in Tokyo (a first-time experience for this wine critic). Over the next five days, the attention never waned. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Waiting

Attention

Experience

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Guy

Kind

" 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 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

" 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

" 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

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Sure

Nothing

Personal

" 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

" 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

" As far as vintage Champagne goes, I loved 1990; it's a great, great vintage. I bought a lot of 1990 Blanc de Blancs Champagne - my favorite kind - and I plan on drinking it all by 2005. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Great

Kind

Vintage

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Always

Worth

Rule

" 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

" 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