60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much wine, so little time..., October 22, 2002
This sixth edition of Parker's wine-buying guide is the result of Robert Parker and his accomplice, Pierre Rovani, tasting their way through more than 8,000 wines. Parker introduces the book as a "consumer's guide to wine." Although Parker and Rovani both write very well, this book is not an effort at creative writing. My review focuses on the utilitarian aspects of the book -- look to others for analysis of character development, plot devices, etc.
My paperback copy of the book has 1635 numbered pages (not 1696 as the Amazon web blurb indicates). About 40 pages (2.5% of the book) are devoted to introductory material ranging from tasting glasses to notions of terroir. The index takes up another 2.3%. The rest (over 95%) is about the wines; these are covered by geographic region. Each region is briefly introduced (several with maps) with a summary of the kinds of wine produced (and grape varietals employed), recent vintages are characterized, and wine producers of the region are ranked from 5 stars (outstanding) to 2 stars (average).
Breaking the geographic coverage down in terms of page volume, Europe takes up 69.5% of the book, North America 19.8%, and the rest of the world the remaining 5.9%. France alone takes up 53% of the book. Six major wine regions consume over 75% of the pages: Bordeaux, 16%; the Rhone, Provence & Languedoc 16%; Burgundy (& Beaujolais) 14.5%; Italy 12.5%; and California 16.7%. Australia and New Zealand weigh in together at 5.6%. South Africa and South America get 2 and 3 pages, respectively. Previous editions of the book have been criticized for this seemingly "undemocratic" coverage.
The vast bulk of the book is tasting notes and numeric ratings for individual wines, organized by producer and vintage year. Parker or Rovani assign a numeric rating or score to each wine; these range from 100 points down to 50 points. A wine rated 90-100 points is excellent to outstanding (grade A), 80-89 points good to very good (grade B), and so on. Tasting notes describe each wine in terms of nose, flavor, body, etc., and these really are the crux of the review: the numeric score attempts to rate the wine relative to its peers, but you still want to know what it tastes like. Reviews for most producers cover the most recent two or three vintages that have been released; some have up to five or six vintages covered (e.g., many Bordeaux chateaux).
Very few wines included in the book are rated at less than 85 points; apparently many wines that were tasted by the pair (and described in Parker's bimonthly *Wine Advocate*) did not make it into the book. By not devoting space to describe lesser wines, the authors are able to point us toward more of the very good and excellent wines. The other side of this coin is that they do not often explicitly steer us away from not-so-good wines. Moreover, if a wine is not included in the book, we don't know if it didn't measure up or simply was not tasted. But many unreviewed producers are at least rated in a general way in the 2- to 5-star tiers for each region/varietal.
Wine prices are indicated by a letter code, from A (inexpensive) to E (expensive) to EEE ("luxury"). Bargain hunters may be dismayed upon randomly scanning the pages to see that A and B priced wines are relatively uncommon. But a closer look reveals a few regions that do have reviews of many reasonably priced wines (the south of France, for example).
So how good is the book? It is not difficult to find fault with it. Some will find the geographic coverage uneven ("Not a single wine from Texas!"). Some will gripe that inexpensive wines are inadequately covered. But Parker and Rovani did not set out to give us a random, representative sample of all the world's wines. They chose to tell us about 8,000+ mostly very good to outstanding wines. The amount of useful information in this book is just incredible -- hundreds of pages of informed tasting notes on good to great current wines. It would be churlish to even think about downgrading the book by a star because of anything it omits. It is an amazing value and most wine consumers will benefit greatly from owning it.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like several different books, January 25, 2004
As has been alluded to in other reviews, the usefulness of this book varies with Parker's commitment to any given wine region. For Bordeaux, Rhone and Languedoc I believe he is excellent. For California and NW United States wines, the book is helpful but also frustrating because so many of the entries are "cult" wines with 500 or so case production. I noticed that some of the more widely available California producers that were included in the fifth edition are left off of this one. While many of the French wines are available in a good wineshop--good luck finding any of the Calfornia ones he raves about. If you start now, you may be able to get on some of the winery mailing lists in five or ten years. In many cases the amount of wine produced is not mentioned, which can be a cause for frustration.
I think this book is an invaluable resource used in connection with other guidebooks and a trustworthy retailer. It's a truism that Parker is the most influential wine critic in the world. Many would argue that wineries are crafting their wines to win his high ratings. That being said, it's helpful to read his views as they give a clear snapshot of the state of winemaking in our era.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A curious combination of the invaluable & the useless, December 7, 2003
I find myself very much in agreement with other reviewers, and I am relieved to discover that I was not alone in this. On the one hand, when one reads Parker's chapters (on Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley in particular), one recognizes the invaluable nature of the guide.
On the other hand, one then turns to the incomprehensible gobbledygook that is the chapter on Burgundy. Proceeding on, one encounters the appalling 11-page chapter on Germany, written by someone who evidently despises most german wines on principle, and which includes absolutely no tasting notes whatsoever. One also gets to enjoy complete howlers like the Loire chapter, which starts with the question "Why are the Loire's wines so little known?" Gee, maybe it is because of 12-page chapters that offer no useful information. All of this is thanks to the rather inept contributions of Pierre-Antoine Rovani.
The result is a wildly uneven guide that should be used with some caution. Parker's chapters for the most part are quite informative. For the reviewer that complained that most of these wines are long since off the market, one only has to read the Bordeaux chapter in regards to the 2000 vintage, which is still available in abundance. If one is looking for good sleeper wines among the 2000 Bordeaux, this guide is worth the price. However, reading Rovani should be regarded as complete waste of time. Like someone else said, he is just deadweight.
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