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| The achievements of top German producers are defamed in Parker's consumer compendium in merciless ignorance |
"I have done my best to produce an impartial and comprehensive guide for the consumer." (Parker on his book)
In the wine guide, which is intended as a textbook and guidebook for consumers, the world's most influential wine critic Robert M. Parker jr. shines in the chapter on Germany with almost unbelievable journalistic blunders. In the introduction, Parker declares: "...This compendium therefore provides you with enough insider information to enable you to make the wisest choice when buying wine. The best and most famous producers and winemakers are assessed, as are most of the wines currently on the market or about to be released...".
In the introduction, Parker promises his readers coverage of the world's most important wine-growing regions. If Parker is to be believed, Germany belongs to the lower-ranking wine-growing regions of this earth. This is justified as follows: "...The wine regions most frequently represented in wine shops (note: in which?) are discussed in far greater detail than the lower-ranking regions, whose wines are rarely exported to the United States and are less frequently seen there...". This logic is entirely coherent in itself. Imagine, please: An art critic only visits exhibitions and museums where the visitor is guaranteed not to see a Picasso, Kandinsky or Van Gogh. The critic concludes from this that Messrs. Picasso & Co. were completely insignificant as artists, great!!! In Parker's opinion, Germany definitely does not belong in the Olympus of nations that produce the greatest wines in the world.
"If wine criticism is ever to be regarded as a profession to be taken seriously, it must be conceived as a full-time occupation and not become a stomping ground for part-timers dabbling amateurishly in a field that is so complex and requires so much time commitment" (Parker on the role of the wine critic). But while we are on the subject of bungling and amateurism, here are some of the most brilliant quotes from the chapter on Germany's wines.
On German wine types, Parker states: "...Dry wines tend to be dull and thin. They have little body, and hardly any fragrance or flavour. Semi-dry wines also taste dry, but may have a little more residual sugar and are a wee bit more interesting. I rarely recommend either. They are commercial products that profit from the growing preference for "dry" wines...".
The wine guru goes on to say: "...Germany also produces sparkling wines called German Sekt, but these should be reserved for masochists because they are rather gruesome concoctions of excessively sulphured wines...".
In another round-about way, one can read: "...If the label does not say Riesling, the contents are probably not among the best wines...".
Also noteworthy is the statement: "...Silvaner rarely produces anything interesting. Most Silvaners either have an unpleasant vegetal aftertaste or are bland and flat...".
The crowning glory, however, is without question Parker's take on the Spätburgunders from Germany. The enormous efforts and progress made by German winemakers in recent years in this field are completely ignored and so the author proclaims: "...The German Pinot Noir grape unfortunately often produces a grotesque and rather awful wine that tastes something like a failed, sweet, tired and diluted red Burgundy from an incompetent winemaker...".
The reader is confronted here with statements that are in no way relativised. Quite obviously, Parker does not obtain his information at first hand. The timeliness of the information leaves a lot to be desired. Parker's findings obviously stem from the time when Honecker still had his "nationally owned" vineyards guarded by his friend Mielke with barbed wire and Kalashnikovs. Parker doesn't even make the slightest effort to deal with the subject matter thoroughly.
He blithely recommends wineries that ceased production years ago (Groenesteyn Castle, Geh. Rat Aschrott Erben) or whose ownership has long since changed or never existed (Wegeler-Deinhard, König Victoria Berg - Deinhard etc.). It is embarrassing when even the names of world-famous wineries are distorted. Schloss Johannisberg is now called Schloss Johannishoff (with double Eff, like Effenberg). Here the critic (in a drunken stupor???) seems to have got a bit carried away with the late harvest rider. Some estates are listed twice. The von Hövel winery appears once as a *** producer on the Saar, then again as a ** producer on the Moselle. VDP president Prinz Salm and Mosel winemaker Raimund Prüm can be happy, according to Parker, the two lucky winemakers can now call two wineries their own (Weingut Salm & Weingut Prinz zu Salm as well as Weingut S.A. Prüm & S.A. Prüm Erben).
Ranking lists of wine producers have always provided sufficient material for emotional outbursts and heated discussions. With Parker, any discussion is superfluous. Parker seems to use a dice cup to create the producer ranking. Many of the actual leading top goods are not even mentioned in Parker's hit list. From Parker's assessment, the reader must conclude that the renowned estates Weil, Breuer, Kessler, Kühn, Schönleber, Keller, Meyer-Näkel, Cossmann-Hehle, Johner, Huber, Bercher, Schneider, Salway, Laible, Haart, Molitor, Heymann-Löwenstein, Knebel, Sankt Urbanshof, Chistmann, Mosbacher, Rebholz, Knipser, Fürst, acid and many more have all forgotten how to make wine. Instead, the man presents the wine drinker with rows and rows of run-down fourth division producers and solid cask wine producers as top recommendations. Nevertheless, a handful of old Riesling classics such as Müller-Scharzhof, Prüm, Haag, Schubert, Dönnhoff and Müller-Catoir are intuitively correctly assigned. But current new discoveries and young winemaking talents: Missing. What was that about bungling, bungling and dilettantism?
Parker's decided antipathy towards Germany as a wine-growing nation manifests itself not only in the criminal ignorance of basic facts and the ignorance of current developments, but also in the extent of the chapter on German wines. For example, while French top estates are described extensively with different wines from various vintages in the most meticulous manner, the author does not utter a single syllable about any German top wine of recent years. Let alone that even a single top German wine is described in detail or seriously recommended.
The sheer size (measured in number of pages) of the chapter on Germany compared to other wine-growing regions in Parker's wine bible is indicative of Parker's zero-buck attitude towards Germany. If, for example, one were to put the size of the described wine-growing regions (measured in ha) in relation to the respective length of the text, a completely distorted picture of the wine world would emerge. The Bordelais, for example, is covered in over 300 pages, the Bourgogne in about 270 pages, the Rhone in 250 pages and even Alsace is quite well represented with about 100 pages. For the "lower-ranking wine-growing region" Germany, a whole 11 pages must suffice in Parker's wine bible!!! (Germany's cultivation area of about 100,000 ha is roughly equivalent to the vineyard area of Bordeaux).
The uninformed reader is left with the impression that German winemakers are more or less only capable of producing flawed, thin, sour and old-fashioned wines. The way it is presented is not only factually questionable, but also serves outdated clichés. It is true that Parker is justifiably critical of some undesirable developments in the German wine industry and inadequacies in German wine legislation and also calls for "...a long overdue campaign to promote the truly outstanding estates...". A differentiated presentation of the current development of the German wine scene, however, is not discernible. Fatally, Parker thus intentionally or unintentionally reinforces those voices at home and abroad who still claim that Germany is not to be taken seriously as a producer of top wines anyway. It can be assumed that Parker's wine bible may achieve sales figures in the millions worldwide. In this respect, Parker's portrayal of Germany as a wine-growing nation is not a domestic problem and must be seen as exceedingly problematic. The image of German wines, especially abroad, is certainly not done any favours by the way it is portrayed.
It is therefore time to make Mr Parker publicly correct his unobjective and erroneous views. The demand of disgruntled German winemakers to have Parker's wine bible withdrawn from circulation by court order is more than justified.
Another article on the same topic:
Review of the same book by Mario Scheuermann