Parker points.

[ctgm]

One of my customers has dumped a lot of wine with me and told me to sell it as and when. One of the lots is 1971 Lynch Bages, which Parker scored a massive 58 points

Is that the lowest anyone has come across? Bearing in mind that he starts from 50 this must be a pretty bad bottle!!

Fortunately I do not have to pay until the goods are sold, unfortunately it is my birth year

[Brad Ballinger]

unfortunately it is my birth year

For birth year wine for you, buy German. You should be able to find 1971s with not a great deal of effort. And they are glorious right now.

I've seen Parker ratings in the 50s for bottles (specific examples don't come to mind right now). I've seen Parker ratings for vintages in the 60s.

[sdelgato]

I thought RMP only printed wines he could recommend. Does he publish all of his scores?

[Lancelot]

If you have an on-line subscription and search by issue you can see a list of rated wines with tasting notes that were not published in that issue. I presume this comes up because of editing reasons or because the scores are too low. I have seen wines listed in this section in the hi 80's that didn't make the cut. I don't remember a lower score than 58 but I do recall a review once for a wine in which he stated that he would probably give a higher score to Kool-Aid!!!

I wonder if grape Kool-Aid would score higher than other flavors?

[ctgm]

Actually, going back to Lynch Bages, I see that Mr. Parker scores the 1973 and 1964 even lower at 55 points!

[Rieslingfan]

He used to print the lower scores. If you go back to the old back issues there are some lowly scores in there.

Also the low scores appear in the books (e.g. Bordeaux).

[Really Nice!]

Somewhere in his latest bordeaux book (I think it's in Latour) he writes that with age there are no great vintages, only great bottles. Could the same be true for bad bottles?

Oh, and for a really nice! '71 try a Penfolds Grange. It's a lovely wine and will evolve for several hours in the glass.

[jayt90]

How could an esteemed Pauillac from a good, if not great vintage not last a thirty year journey? Did R.P. have a bad bottle, at a bad time? I think we need more details...

[Lancelot]

There are 6 wines (out of 58,369) on the Wine Advocate Website that score 50 points. The eyes of the winemakers are blocked out so you can't tell who they are.

77 Rausan-Segla

75 Angelus

73 Lagrange

78 Margaux

65 Rothschild

69 Remoissenet Pere et Fils Le Montrachet

In fairness the tasting notes mostly refer to wines that are over the hill, not poor or corked. As a reader I'm more interested in the wines he likes than the wines he doesn't.If he pans a wine I probably won't try it. If the Spectator disses a wine I still might try it depending on who writes the tasting note.

Lancelot

Disclaimer... I am a self admitted card carrying member of the Parker Slut Hall of fame.

[joiei]

For birth year wine for you, buy German. You should be able to find 1971s with not a great deal of effort. And they are glorious right now.

I can highly recommend this direction. A couple of weeks ago, I tasted a friends

71 German Riesling. It was excellent. I do not know that I have every tasted a riesling that had that depth of flavor. Very much a treat for me.

As for Parker, his cellar program is not user friendly to this user.

[Really Nice!]

Somewhere in his latest bordeaux book (I think it's in Latour) he writes that with age there are no great vintages, only great bottles. Could the same be true for bad bottles?

Page 211, for the Latour 1970 vintage, which he rated as in the mid to upper 90s.

"The 1970 is excellent, but not inspirational. A bottle from my cellar drunk in late August 2002, was rated 97. It appeared to have at least two decades of life remaining, in contrast to the Chateau's bottles, which require immediate consumption. Readers who purchased old vintages of great wines, regardless of whether they are Bordeaux, Burgundy, or California Cabernet, need to remember the expression, "There are no great wines, just great bottles," particularly after a wine reaches 30 years of age."

ctgm, have you tried Wine Searcher? It shows many wines from 1971, including:

Montrose (~$100)

Latour (~$300)

Mouton Rothschild (~$160)

Gruaud Larose (~$53.00)

Palmer (~$100)

Click Search when you get to the site. These are some of Parker's favorite Bordeaux for that year.