{"id":3064,"date":"2024-05-06T15:23:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo89.wp.skiss.cc\/?p=3064"},"modified":"2025-03-19T03:10:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T03:10:27","slug":"vino-joy-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/vino-joy-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this Chinese critic the next Robert Parker for China?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The rise of Robert Parker in 1980s as the formidable American wine critic once said himself is that he was \u201cat the right time and right place\u201d.<\/a> That being the global wine consumer market\u2019s tectonic shift from Europe to the US, which has since become the world\u2019s biggest wine consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His straight-talking style of wine reviews using a 100-point numerical system, effective and engaging, are quickly welcomed by disenchanted American wine drinkers and spread beyond its borders. For a long time, his lone palate dictates consumers\u2019 buying choices and even wineries\u2019 wine styles. Parker\u2019s praise can send wine shelves empty, and wines with less forgiving reviews would crush under the weight of his opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much can be said about his legacy. Detractors bemoan his influence over ripe, jammy, high-octane wine style but there\u2019s no question that Parker remained truthful \u2013 even to a fault- to his own palate through and through, and for 4 decades empowered American wine consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lin Liu MW (pic: handout)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China, on the other hand, widely tipped to become the world\u2019s second biggest wine market behind the US, has yet to find itself a Robert Parker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that they haven\u2019t tried though. Publications like Wine Spectator, Decanter or other wine critics don\u2019t wield the same power over English speaking consumers as they do in China, where cultural and social context dictates how wine is conversed and consumed. A Chinese wine drinker would have a hard time imagining what \u201ccassis\u201d or \u201cquince\u201d is and feel no need to follow course-by-course wine pairing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are \u201cParker hopefuls\u201d inside the country but entangled commercial interests and education-driven communication have proved less effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that might change soon, with Chinese Master of Wine Lin Liu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hangzhou-born, France-trained wine writer has just launched her bilingual wine website Wine Maniacs<\/a>, setting out to be an independent wine critic. Focusing mainly on France, She has already published her 2019 and 2020 Bordeaux En Primeur reports, a few Rhone and Burgundy reports. The website primarily targeting Chinese audience, as she told me, is already been cited by Wine Searcher and Liv-ex, and most importantly, a mass hit within Chinese readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu\u2019s first-ever Bordeaux En Primeur 2019 report published in 2020 \u2013 the same year she obtained her MW title- received over 40,000 views on WeChat, China\u2019s most used social media platform. Her following Bordeaux En Primeur 2020 report went on to attract more than 100,000 views on WeChat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the buzz seems to be related to her ability to communicate effectively with Chinese readers and her refusal to buck under pressure to give out generous scores in order to be used by wine trade, a dilemma that confronts many new wine reviewers, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lin Liu MW doing 2020 En Primeur tasting at Cheval Blanc (pic: Yu Hua)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undoubtedly, numerical rating system is \u201can effective way\u201d to communicate to the public, she told me but inflated scores can risk devaluing the system. \u201cBut essentially, a score is to tell \u2018average\u2019 apart from \u2018good\u2019, and from \u2018great\u2019 or \u2018outstanding\u2019. If Michelin Guide give 50% of the restaurants in the world with stars, they will be soon made redundant I suppose,\u201d she explains.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA score is to tell \u2018average\u2019 apart from \u2018good\u2019, and from \u2018great\u2019 or \u2018outstanding\u2019. If Michelin Guide gives 50% of the restaurant in the world with stars, they will be soon made redundant I suppose.\u201c<\/p>\nLin Liu MW<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, numerical rating system is not with its limitations, she says, \u201cout of context, many valuable information could be skewed or at least neglected without reading detailed tasting notes, or considering the occasion how they are consumed. But in terms of the scoring itself, my objective is to show the different scales to the readers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given her rising clout over Chinese consumers, it\u2019s hard not to imagine if she would emerge to play a more influential role for the country\u2019s over 50 million wine drinkers. Positioning herself as a guide rather than an authority, she stopped short at Parker comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is true that Chinese market has been making rapid progress in fine wine segment. It is logical to imagine that similar figure(s) could play a similar role as Parker,\u201d she replied when asked about the possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>But the current social climate is very different from the 1980s, in China and many other parts of the world. If we see this wine critic job is to win a power game, then fundamentally there is something quite wrong about it. This is perhaps why the scoring is becoming more and more generous!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, today\u2019s wine styles are more diverse than ever, and consumption is heavily influenced by social media, packaging, marketing and a plethora of wine authorities. Opinions vary, and often drastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, Chinese wine critic is still a very new thing, I am personally just starting this new adventure, after being writing for a few journals\/wine guides since 2012. So still a long way ahead,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the fundamental missions of wine critic shall never change: acknowledging and encouraging the note-worthy work of the producers, and introducing the right types of wines to the right types of consumers: an important bridge to keep both sides connected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview was originally published on: https:\/\/vino-joy.com\/2022\/05\/02\/is-this-chinese-critic-the-next-robert-parker-for-china\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rise of Robert Parker in 1980s as the formidable American wine critic once said himself is that he was \u201cat the right time and right place\u201d. That being the global wine consumer market\u2019s tectonic shift from Europe to the US, which has since become the world\u2019s biggest wine consumer. His straight-talking style of wine reviews using […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winemaniacs.club\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}