Thread by @RaoulGMI

It's Friday night on FinTwit, so it's booze night...

It's been a while since my rum thread. Time to talk wine!

Stories of bond villains, globalization and the world's most underpriced fine wine awaits (along with affordable rec's too)

Let's start this story with someone called Robert Parker, a newsletter writer back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

When we understand Parker, you eventually get to why my favorite wines are dramatically underpriced.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pa…

Parker had a paid newsletter called The Wine Advocate and was a small time player until, similar to financial newsletters, he got it really right once, back in 1982, when he rated the Bordeaux vintage higher than anyone on first tasting.

He nailed it. It became one of the best vintages ever, and no one else saw its potential on initial tastings.

His reputation was set.

Parker, an American, then opened up the world of wines for the US market with a simple trick...

He developed a 100 point scoring system for wines to reduce the uncertainty and fear for regular people who didn't know how to get over the knowledge fear that the snobby world of wines had created.

Genius.

But the law of unintended consequences kicked in...

Parker became very famous and the world hung on his points system and his palette. But his palette is subjective and he liked what he liked. BIG wines of Napa were his reference.

Those wines, being rather warm wines have higher alcohol of around 13.5% to 14% back in the 80's (now 14.5% to 15.5%!)

Parker also didn't believe in terroir (wines that taste of where they are made), he believed in grape variety above all.

The US became the biggest market in the world as Parker had made it easy to understand wine. But his palette changed wines forever and wines became standardized to it in order to get the famous high 90's scores so they sold well for big $$$

And the world of wine began to get distorted by these super big, high alcohol wines that were stripped of terroir and were over fruited on over ripened vines.

You see, no one had a choice not to change their wines.

If they didn't, their wines wouldn't sell in the US.

He destroyed the old winemaking tradition - out went oak aging and long-maturing elegant wines and in came steel and processing and late harvests for sugar. In short - globalized wine.

He even looks like a Bond villain...

You can read about Robert Parker and the Parkerization of wines here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pa…

But in the incredible film Mondo Vino, which tells this sad story of the globalization of the wine palette on his points system, the real villains were the consultants like Michel Rolland who persuaded winemakers to change.

Everyone from Bordeaux to Burgundy, from Tuscany to Spain changed how they made wines.

High alcohol! BIG! Dark! Jammy! ...and young.

And here is another knock on effect... winemakers loved it. It saved a fortune.

And the public couldn't get enough - a scoring system that rated buying wines like buying fridges! And the intense alcohol gave sweetness to the wines, making them more akin to the over-flavored processed food with sugar AND salt to build false flavor profile. MORE!

High alcohol (14%+) and micro bubbles etc hid the tannins, meaning wine didn't need to age as much to drink.

Gone for the need for 20 years of stock! Gone was some of the harvest weather risk! Gone aging risk! Win/win.

Out was elegance (wines between 12% and 13%), out went wines that develop over time with beauty and fragility. Out went the subtle charms of regions, soil, oak barrels, micro climates.

Parker and the industry didn't want the old ways.

But not everyone changed...

Before I get to that, time to take a sip of my pre-dinner cocktail while my wine breathes.

The "RP Lockdown" is a Campari and Orange La Croix in a tall glass over ice with a slice of orange. :-)

..... Interval.....

Ok, that's better ! And bitter! :-)

Let's now get to La Rioja in Northern Spain, where the world's most underpriced fine wines live.

La Rioja has an incredible wine history. Have a read here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rioja_(wi…

And more details here and it's "demoninacion":

riojawine.com/us/en-us/

La Rioja produces different categories of wines - Rioja, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva, based on age in oak barrels.

winefolly.com/deep-dive/rioj…

With the very best wines coming from the region of La Rioja Alta and often around the town of Haro, where the famous bodegas are usually based.

More to come! I've hit the thread limit. if you are still with me, the big reveal lies ahead..

Now, here's the rub. Parker didn't like the wines of Rioja. He didn't like their oak, lower alcohol or fine elegance like a good old-school burgundy.

That forced many Bodegas to change how they made wines...

Old makers like Marques de Riscal and Marques the Murrieta changed how they made wines. Alcohol went up from 12.5% to 14% or 14.5%.

New bodegas popped up with 15% wines like Roda and their HUGE Cirsion and Roda I.

Great wines, but they had lost that Rioja magic.

They had globalized around the Parker scoring system in order to sell more wine at much higher prices into the US. Dark, jammy, strong and younger, much younger.

But some old bodegas didn't change. They held their ground that was true to Rioja.

Wines that are IMMORTAL.

Wines that drink well over 50 years old (or after a few years if its a Crianza).

Wines that are fine, elegant and unique.

Some like Castillio Ygay and Imperial have partially Parkerised and are now 14% (such a shame) but others like La Rioja Alta and Lopez de Heredia didn't.

These wines are the most underpriced fine wines in the world.

In order not to take up your whole evening (you've got wine to drink!), I'm going to give you a quick link to La Rioja Alta - Truly fucking incredible wines. I can not recommend enough.

riojalta.com

These wines live for ever. I kid you not. On Tuesday night I drank a 1964 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva. It was pure silk, strawberries and red currents but with subtle oak and still had the backbone of tannin.

Un-fucking-believable.

It's like the finest burgundy - pure elegance and deliciousness. Light yet deep. but it cost 1/10th of the cost of an equivalent aged great burgundy.

1/10th! (around $300 vs $3,000+).

You can buy younger versions and Reserva's for less than $50. It's ludicrous in a world of $1500 4 year old Screaming Eagle or even Opus One.

Tonight Im going to drink 2005 La Rioja Alta 904 Gran Reserva. Cost me about $70.

These are ridiculous value for those of you used to drinking wines at that price. Nothing remotely comes close.

Nothing.

You can buy good Rioja's for $25 to $35.

Parker doesn't like them. Good.

But I save the best for last, the oldest of the old school. The most stubborn winemakers in the world - Lopez de Heredia, who make things the very, very old fashioned way, even carrying grapes on their backs in baskets not on tractors.

They ignore all new rules, use American oak barrels (not steel or French oak). Specially season them. Then they store them longer in oak than anyone and then in the bottle longer. and then they leave them for a reaaaally long time.

At the shop at the bodega, they sell red wines back to the 1930's, whites to the 1950's and rose's to the early 1980's. WTF!!!

Their wines literally live forever and hold their fruit and unctuous elegance and fine oak.

The 1947 Viña Tondonia is still incredible drinking well ( I haven't tried it) and costs $1000!!! That is less than 2010 Screaming Eagle.

A 1945 DRC from Burgundy (really rather similar in style) sold two years ago for $550,000.

But for someone serious who is doesn't want to spend $1000, then you can buy the almighty 1970 Viña Tondonia for $350. That is madness. It is so underprices its crazy. A shitty, pimped up Napa Cab costs that...

I collect old Rioja, not to sell but to drink because life is all about the pleasures and if its going to be so underpriced, I'll take all I can.

This is a great article on LdH...

tondonia.com/noticias/View.…

Here is their website...which is a bit old fashioned, as it should be...

lopezdeheredia.com/english/vinos/…

But I'll leave you with this...

Any Rioja pre the mid 1990's avoids the Parker influence. Enjoy them and try as many as possible.

If you aren't in the market for expensive wines then drink Vina Tondonia, Vina Real, Ardanza and 904 Reserva's for $30 to $60.

This is the story of how one mans palette and scoring system changed the world of wine and globalized wine styles and when the herd move one way and bought everything, there are bargains to be had in the things they left behind.

It reminds me of the rise of passive funds and the leaving behind of value and active investing styles.

You may not buy these stocks for the price to rise much when no wants them, but you are buying great businesses at rock bottom $$$.

Salut!

Time to drink the La Rioja Alta and bid you a buen fin de semana!

** Addendum - just to be clear - the greatest undervalued wines of all time are the 30 yr + Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia's and Bosconia's of Lopez de Heredia. Some of the best wines of earth for a 1/10th of the cost of anything close to equivalent.

Second to those are la Rioja Alta a 904 and 890 Gran Reserva's

And after that, any Rioja Reserva or GR, pre 1995.