Daily Wine News: “A Caste System”

“Of course, I’m part of the problem there by giving high scores…” — Robert Parker (Flickr: winestem)

Robert Parker tells the Drinks Business “we have a caste system of wine.” He also admits that he is “partly to blame for the demand and subsequent high prices of certain fine wines.”

“Is anyone else wondering what happened to the investigation of the French Laundry wine theft?” In the Napa Valley Register, Jeannine Yeomans thinks it’s strange that no suspects have been arrested since the majority of the wines were recovered in late January.

In Wine-Searcher, W. Blake Gray reports on the potential ties between “certified sustainable” programs and the wineries accused in a lawsuit last week as having ‘dangerous’ levels of arsenic.”

“If you don’t think the arsenic story is a big deal, you better think again,” says Tom Wark. “…if bogus claims like this are left to metastasis it can grow into a cancer on the industry that will be hard to overcome.”

In Wine Spectator, Robert Camuto profiles Cristiana Garella, who has been obsessed with Nebbiolo since he was a teenager.

Is mixed ripeness — some grapes barely ripe, some almost over-ripe — desirable at harvest time? “In principle, no,” says Andrew Jefford in Decanter.

“Do clones matter when it comes to chardonnay?” asks Mary Cressler in Palate Press.

In Punch, Zachary Sussman visits June, a new Brooklyn wine bar that offers a glimpse into how natural wine has gone from fringe movement to global phenomenon.