The Auswine Forum

Neal Martin of Wine-Journal.com has interviewed Michael Broadbent MW. Click here to link to the interview. Its definitely worth a read, especially for his comments on Len Evans and Robert Parker, Jr.
Mike

Bucketload of CRASS not CLASS!

"I, for one, am not interested in writing about Sauvignon Blanc for example. These wines are for drinking, not for writing about"

"A propos Pavie that made perfectly decent wine. Then Perse came along and he made a wine that looked like tar, smelt like tar and tasted like tar. They are impressive but they are simply not drinkable".

Bucketload of CRASS not CLASS!

"I, for one, am not interested in writing about Sauvignon Blanc for example. These wines are for drinking, not for writing about"

"A propos Pavie that made perfectly decent wine. Then Perse came along and he made a wine that looked like tar, smelt like tar and tasted like tar. They are impressive but they are simply not drinkable". [/quote]

Dear All that Jazz,

Your 'crassness' is shining through. I know whose opinion I would value if given a choice between you and Michael Broadbent. When you have as much learning and experience as Mr Broadbent, then come back and visit this board, and your glib (and I use that word as a pejorative) attitude might be met with a little more than my present shrug and distaste. He speaks from some sort of authority: can the same be said of you?

Ooohhhh... this one looks like it may raise some emotions.

Without wishing to get into the crass vs class arguement, the Sauvignon Blanc comment and the Parve undrinakable comments certainly do not push my buttons in a positive way.

Broadbent may have a well-respected palate with huge amounts of experience, that unfortunately, to me, those quotes make him sound like a pretentious olde-worlde wine lover who thinks he has a monopoly as an arbiter of taste.

Whilst I frequently disagree with Parker's ratings, and personally do not enjoy many of the Parkerised style of Australian wines, people are free to enjoy any style of wine that turns them on; no one, including esteemed wine professionals, have the right to tell people that their taste in the wine is in their backside.

Calling a wine "undrinkable" just because you don't like the style, is doing exactly that and is very different from saying a wine is undrinkable because it is suffering from technical faults.

Well the emotions will probably run high as a link to the interview has been put up on eBob here.

The comment on Sauvignon Blanc is a little below the belt seeing as how most wine consumed is "supermarket" wine. But then Broadbent has spent most of his life drinking in a pretty rarified atmosphere compared to the rest of us.

Mike

I agree with much of what you say, TORB. Your thoughts are at least 'fleshed out' a little so that I can see some meaning and significance to your statements. Our friend, All that Jazz, simply made a pejorative remark without any explication and, thereby, showed that (s)he was the crass one. By way of example, if my response to your comments was simply to say "that's stupid" then I would be the stupid one, surely. That was the gist of my comments vis-a-vis All that Jazz's remarks.

Having said all that, I would tend to side with Mr Broadbent. He was simply voicing an authoritative opinion, and he wasn't deprecating sauv blanc at all, but merely saying that it's was good for drinking rather that exploring it's nuances as one might do with a good (or not so good) red.

PJ.

TORB wrote:Ooohhhh... this one looks like it may raise some emotions.

Without wishing to get into the crass vs class arguement, the Sauvignon Blanc comment and the Parve undrinakable comments certainly do not push my buttons in a positive way.

.

I thought you of most people would have related very well to his reluctance to rate c-thru sav blanc??!

Adam,

If I absolutely, positively have no choice but to drink a c-through, which normally happens about once a year in the middle of summer, while one of choice is usually a...... wait for it ........ NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

Luckily last summer was not too hot, and I managed to avoid the annual occurrence.

Ric, 4get about NZ SB. Do try a Peel Wooden Chenin Blanc.
Low yield, matured in 100% new Nevers barrel, released after 3 yrs of bt. aging. Only $21 - Big, blowsy with melons, ripe tropical fruits, intense and finish long.
U might like it....

TORB wrote:Adam,

If I absolutely, positively have no choice but to drink a c-through, which normally happens about once a year in the middle of summer, while one of choice is usually a...... wait for it ........ NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

Luckily last summer was not too hot, and I managed to avoid the annual occurrence.

But urely you wouldnt give it a rating??!!

Adam wrote:But urely you wouldnt give it a rating??!!

But I have an excuse; its against the Red Bigot Society's code to rate c-through - and bescides, it already has a rating "Cat's Piss"

To claim SB is not worth writing about is not to disparage it as a drink. Fair enough. And the Pavie comment seemed to relate to specifically to drinking with food - and I don't really feel Broadbent has to justify himself in any way shape or form. The guy's forgotton more about wine than most of us will ever know.

I may read the eBob link, just for fun. The same way you can't help but gawp at a train crash as you drive by...

cheers,
Graeme

I love the Pavies under the Perse regime. Hell lot better than when it was made by Vallete. Overcropped and underipe. I didn't detect any TAR, his statement is biased.
It's an outstanding wine, excellent with my roasted lamb rack.


A defender of "Tradition"?
More like "conceptual culture" rather than "concepts of evolution" mentality. He sees himself as a hierarchical figure and his influence is diminishing by the day.

2 words sums it all; PRIDE & PREJUDICED!

I have had the pavies on quite a few occasions, and was not particularly enamoured with the 2000, I did quite like the 1998 and 1999 though.

They are certainly in a different mould than "traditional claret". Much more new worldish....almost like aussie shiraz.