Robert Parker Blesses Vintage 2009

Robert Parker, the Deity of the Wine WorldIn his first e-mailnewsletter for subscribers of eRobertParker.com the influential American wine critic Robert Parker (left on the photo) writes very positive about vintage 2009 in France. Parker writes that in thirty years that he visited France in the autumn he has never experienced better weather than during the critical harvest months of August, September and the first half of October 2009. Burgundy, Loire, Alsace, Bordeaux, the northern Rhone, “perhaps” the southern Rhone, according to Parker may all be experiencing a “phenomenal” vintage. Only the drought that hit some wine regions in the spring and summer of 2009 can still throw a spanner because of potentially rough tannins in the finished wines. “But we will only know for sure when we taste the wines in the spring of 2010,” Parker said. In the same newsletter Parker repeats again that “you can not buy enough of 2007 in the southern Rhone”. He also describes a recent blind tasting of fifteen Bordeaux 2005’s that he scored high during the ‘en primeur’ week of 2006. The tasting confirms the superior quality of this “terribly expensive” vintage. This is all good news from the the Parker-front for producers of French quality-wines, but maybe less so for the consumer, who mistakenly thought that next year because of the economic crisis there might be some good wine-deals in store for him or her.