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" 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.

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" 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.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

" 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.

" 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.

" Fettuccine Alfredo is dangerous for your health. "

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

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

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.