For some of the world's best cabernets and merlots - blended of course - there's always Bordeaux.

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By any measure, the St. Emilion appellation of Bordeaux has done very well. It's got its own sub-appellations and is much better known than many of Bordeaux' 50 or so appellations - you familiar with Cotes de Castillon? Moulis? - but it still chafes at being left out of the original Classification of 1855.

In 1954, the winemakers of St. Emilion developed their own classification system, which ranked the various chateaux according to quality, Grands Crus Classes being the top. The key difference with the 1855 classification is that the St. Emilion ones are to be re-classified every ten years - meaning some wineries move on to or up the lists, and others fall down or even off. The latest re-classification was in 2006 - and so much trouble was stirred up by chateaux kicked off that they managed to get a French court to annul it. The 1996 classification was reinstated and the scuffle continues.

New York Times Magazine writer Edward Lewine provides great background on the St. Emilion squabble and looks at the very real power of the classification system in this excellent article.

As if outspending the previous several Olympics combined to produce the show-stopping Beijing Games, a new area of dominance is being carved out by China: fine collectable wines.

Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson have both travelled to China, and Toronto's own Zoltan Szabo has done some consulting work in Shanghai, so clearly there's plenty of interest in wine. The super-flush oenophiles of China are now flashing ever more cash at fine wine auctions, driving already high prices even higher.

Toronto's Ritchies Fine Wine Auction has been considered a great success, selling around $3 million worth of wine at its annual event. Read Mike Steinberger in Slate magazine to hear how things went at Hong Kong's first wine auction this year...

Heavyweight wine critics like Robert Parker and Michael Broadbent have years of experience and a commitment to applying objective criteria when it comes to rating wines. But they still have their own preferences.

London wine merchants Roberson, who run a terrific store at the wrong end of Kensington High Street, invited Parker and Broadbent to rate a number of fine wines. Paying members of the wine-drinking public then tasted the same wines - without knowing the professionals' scores - and chose their favourites.

There may be something to the concept of a regional or national palate... the local guy won.

Oz - Australian vernacular for "Australia" - is a big wine producer with a wide range of wines. Wine Australia's "Regional Heroes" tour of Canada this past winter was part of an effort to make consumers more aware of the regional characteristics of Australian wines.

Although mostly a hot climate country, there are areas of Australia that manage to turn out cooler climate wines. And of course as the industry matures, certain regions like Coonawarra, Barossa Valley and Margaret River are developing signature styles.

So you think you know what an Aussie from a particular region should taste like? Take the Regional Heroes Challenge from Wine Australian - it's fun and educational.

Alas, no.

In a lengthy and informative article in the New Yorker, Joan Acocella summarizes the hangover: why you get one, colloquial terms for it in different countries, the lack of scientific research into it and hence no magic pill, and a list of informal hangover cures. Chances are you'll chuckle or go "eww" at most of them, then "yeah, that works really well for me!"

Acocella also states that red wine is worse than white wine for hangovers, but then you knew that...

It's the usual amusing and well-written New Yorker prose, only this time about hangovers.

Decanter's breathless coverage of Robert Parker and his pronouncements on Bordeaux continues...

Following hot on the heels of his "slam" of the 07 barrel samples, the Parkster has released his scores on the 05 vintage, which has now been bottled and which will be on the market later this year. According to Decanter, he has "rebuke[d]" the big producers by holding back on big scores.

However the histrionics may be merited - Parker is on record as having said that 05 is the "greatest vintage" of his 30-year wine career, so it does seem odd that there are only two 100-pointers - Chateau Ausone (pictured) and L'Eglise Clinet.

Nevertheless, there are a number of big names that he scores above 95, which basically means "stunningly good".

According to the article, it seems RP really is concerned about the monster he has unleashed with his 100-point wines and there is some interesting detail on the effect his scores actually have on pricing at the top end in  Adam Lechmere and Maggie Rosen's report. 

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Robert Parker has been criticized for many things, including creating a cult of "90 plus points" and awarding 100 points to some wines (critics of this approach say no wine can be absolutely perfect). He's been criticized for causing prices for wines to rise and criticized for causing them to fall, but then, he is the world's most influential wine critic.

Decanter magazine reports that the British wine community is currently all a-twitter over RP's 2007 Bordeaux en primeur marks because they're so low: "...they aren't pretty," intones writer Maggie Rosen, "He has awarded only three wines up to 100 points - all of them white; among the reds, only four achieved up to a potential 95." Rosen gets reactions from a number of people and declares that "many UK merchants are bearish on the vintage."

Parker's favourite 07 red is Bellevue Mondotte, a small "garage" producer in St. Emilion. The blend is merlot dominated and the property is just five acres. RP scored it 94-97.

On the plus side, with Parker's scores so "low", prices for top wines are likely to be lower than in recent years - and that surely is a good thing.  

Hopefully Vintages will go in, RP notes in hand, and negotiate hard for lower prices for this year's en primeur release...

Read the hand-wringing report on how Parker slams with faint praise.

If you're new to wine or oblivious to critics' names, here's a great magazine feature on RP. It's from 2000, but it gives a good summary of why Robert Parker is important.
 

America's most influential wine magazine has given its biggest ever coverage of Niagara in the May 15th issue. Wine Spectator writer Mitch Frank produced a 6-page piece on Niagara in the Travel section, paying special attention to "small quality-minded wineries".

You can find the magazine at better newsstands, but to read it online, you have to be (or become) a subscriber. Visit winespectator.com and click on the May 15 issue.