Listen to the critics

Many years ago when I ran the UK's first successful chain of wine warehouses I managed to persuade the then 'wine correspondent' of a major national newspaper to taste and review our top 10 wines - quite a coup. The correspondent in question came to lunch, thoroughly enjoyed himself and had far too much to drink. He took no notes and rang me the following day to say thanks, tell me he had lost his tasting notes and could he have mine. I obliged, with suitably glowing

descriptions. My notes were published in full, without even the odd spelling mistake being corrected. Great PR for us - but fortunately for drinkers, that would not happen today.

The world's leading wine critic by some margin is Robert Parker, an American ex-lawyer who publishes 'The Wine Advocate' bi-monthly. It consists of about 70 pages of detailed notes on wines he has tasted with a simple scoring system of ratings between 80 (avoid) and 100 (the very best). 'Bob', as he is known, makes or breaks vineyards and sets the market price for the very best. An example: back in 1983 a relatively unknown Bob was in Bordeaux assessing the great 1982 vintage. Peter Sichel was in charge of Chateau Palmer when Bob rang for an appointment. Peter didn't