Some Jancis Robinson videos....

[JimHow]

Was just hanging out tonight, came across some fun Jancis Robinson YouTube videos, surprising to me that we never crossed paths with her over the past 22 years. I'm assuming you must have tasted with her somewhere along the way, Ian?

Of course when I run into a video of the Jancis Robinson "most memorable wines" I'm going to watch, and there is the 1947 Cheval Blanc, as expected. What I get a kick out of is her ranking of 2002 Dom, including D2, and the 2008 Cristal, which I have plenty of left, my fellow BWEers, anytime you come up to the Great State of Maine, aka BWE Mecca, I'll hold them for 2008 Cristal and fresh summer Maine lobster on the back deck. One of Jancis Robinson's favorite wines...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esyHRk7tSSs

Her video on wine glasses is fun, as well, and her tasting of the dregs of 1982 Laaange Baaage, the gateway, of course, to the golden decade of Lynch and Bordeaux.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMhy7Qh3sKw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJATtt0p8o8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrVNBcyLuA8

[Comte Flaneur]

I do occasionally bump into Jancis Jim on the London tasting circuit. She is polite and unassuming but likes to keep herself to herself. She does not mix in with the crowd like say Neal Martin who occasionally attends our lunches. Jancis is quite petit in the flesh and is only really puts herself about when she is trying to sell something, like one of her books. Her husband Nicolas Lander is a food critic for the FT. The last time I tasted with her was about 15 years ago at an Haut-Brion tasting in London where I bought a signed copy of one of her books on Californian wines (combination of being inebriated and ingratiating).

In the video on wine glasses the glass she happened to really like she sells commercially under her name label. Something she should have but failed to disclose. They are lovely light glasses like Grassl or Zalto but very expensive. Her son runs a restaurant called the Portland in central London and when we went there last year he hired in some Jancis glasses at considerable extra cost to us to drink our 2010 Barolo.

Jancis was really in her heyday about 20 years ago and her career somewhat mirrored Parker’s, famously clashing with him once on Pavie, but both professing mutual respect for each other. But I think Parker had the better palate, and lately I find her tasting notes - still sometimes included in commercial retailers’ marketing blurb - to be highly erratic and unreliable. Like Parker she is now in her early 70s, and her olfactory senses are probably not what they once were.

[Musigny 151]

I have also run into her a few times in France, and sat next to her once, and we talked about the wines on the table. Nothing profound, but a very pleasant conversation. Also not sure about her palate; I subscribed to her newsletter for a year and dropped it as not really that useful, as our palates were not aligned.

As for 1947 Cheval, I have had it twice. We bought as a group buy a Van dear Meulan bottle with great fanfare, building a whole evening around it. We opened a bottle and the aromas filled the room; pure skunk. Incredibly pungent and utterly disgusting. We all took a sip, most spat out. A genuine bottle I believe as nobody will fake a negotiant bottle.

The second was at a tasting of the best wines of the 20th century, a chance to drink legends. Mouton 1945, Cheval 1947, Lafite 1953, Latour a Pomerol 1961. Very Parkerized, and the Cheval pronounced correct was again not my style. Dry Port, plummy, complex but still too roasted my taste. Ditto Latour a Pomerol 1961. The winner was La Mission Haut Brion 1955, a gem of complexity and precision, and utterly gorgeous. It would be in the running for my best wine.

[Tom In DC]

A genuine bottle I believe as nobody will fake a negotiant bottle.

Oh yes they will. Much easier because the labels are always one offs as the wines are bottled, so no specifics to look for on the label of a real bottle.

[Musigny 151]

A genuine bottle I believe as nobody will fake a negotiant bottle.

Oh yes they will. Much easier because the labels are always one offs as the wines are bottled, so no specifics to look for on the label of a real bottle.

Probably right now. This was in 1988.

[AKR]

Jancis seems to be a very fine wine writer and has done great working editing so many tomes. I might give a try to an estate she endorses but I'm not going out of way in effort or expense to hunt down her recommendations.

[Claudius2]

Guys
In a China you can get fake everything from Petrus to mineral water.
I could give a long list of both product types and Brand’s that are fake throughout Asia.
There are lots of fake watches, jewellery and bags everywhere, but seriously, many entire giant malls in China only sell fakes.

If I could not find a fake negociant wine in China then I’d be surprised.