Influential US wine critic Robert Parker has revealed he enjoys a $15 (£7) wine just as much as anyone else.
Parker, who is currently in Tokyo as part of a food and wine tour of Asia, also said that the real market in wine was at the lower end of the price spectrum, with the average consumer wanting inexpensive wines.
‘The real marketplace is Beaujolais Nouveau,’ he told news agency Reuters. ‘It’s less-expensive wines - that’s where the consumer is.’
In Japan, and China, the annual release of Beaujolais Nouveau remains highly popular despite declining sales elsewhere.
Parker also stressed his own humble side.
‘The biggest problem with people who haven’t met me before is they have this image of some kind of colossus, this monolith of power,’ he said. ‘And then they realise, I’m just a wine lover.’
‘I enjoy a $15 or $20 (£7-10) bottle of wine just as much as most people do,’ he added.
However, the critic boasted he would be going to the other end of the scale during his stay in Japan.
‘Tomorrow night at the hotel, nobody on Planet Earth will be eating or drinking better,’ he said, after revealing the wine list for his ¥315,000-a-head (£1,500, US$3,000) dinner.
Wines served at the evening include 1990 Chateau Petrus (£2,400, US$4,700 a bottle), 1948 Doisy-Daene (£290, US$570), and 2000 Cheval Blanc (£700, US$1,300).
A spokeswoman for Parker’s publication The Wine Advocate said that after Tokyo, Parker’s travels would take him to Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. She would not confirm whether or not the tour included charity work.
Written by Maggie Rosen
