Grade inflation, 100-point Spain, and powertasting: Jay Miller has his say
Jay Miller, critic at Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, entered the fray with a couple of comments yesterday. Since these postings received many reader comments initially, I thought I would flag his reactions for you here since sometimes new comments can get lost.
Here’s the thread on grade inflation in wines. He comments about the trend and specifically discusses his recent reviews of Spanish wines, which included many high scores.
And here’s another one when I met him and tasted some Argentine wines with him.
Here’s a taste of his comment:
The palate fatigue argument, frankly, is total hogwash. The principal difficulty for amateurs is maintaining concentration, mental fatigue, not physical fatigue. Someone mentioned doing no more than 12 wines; that’s 30 minutes work. You taste, you spit, you write a note, taste again, spit, add (or not to your note) and on to the next wine. When you’ve had practice doing this, it’s simply not difficult.
But he concludes with this compliment: “Anyway, I like this site. I’ll try to get back more often.” Always welcome!
On June 28th, 2007 at 3:32 pm ,Dave wrote:
Meant to tell you that I really enjoyed your Food & Wine article on birthday year wines. The online auction sites are also good places to seek those out. Personally, I picked up a 1970 Leoville Las Cases for $75 a couple years ago from WineBid dot com.
See you again at the next meet-up.
On June 29th, 2007 at 4:28 pm ,Boris wrote:
Thank you for printing of photo of the Dr. Jay Miller’s head. It is very modern style head reminding of new golf drivers. Why use 280cc when 500cc hit ball 300 yards down fairway without effort? Yes, new drivers so much like big effortless melons. The Dr. Jay Miller’s generous cheeks must share in the effortless would prodigious wine tasting machine. There is said of the smoothness. Accoutrement of hipster beard which cause search here in Russia add to modern style.