Wine bloggers are twittering and it's all because of that man again, Robert M. Parker. I gather in the last month or so he sent out a 'tweet' saying something like, "some wine merchants are heavily discounting once very expensive Aussie Shirazs because they are out of fashion among the anti-flavour wine elites." This quickly became the acronym 'AFWE', but what exactly was he getting at?

The bloggers (e.g. WineLoversPage.com) and forum posters knew straight away as it confirmed their suspicion that Parker only likes big flavoured wines and shows no respect at all for the refinement of European wines (Old World), which while they may not have the flavour impact, make up for it with a 'subtle, complex and restrained wine style.'

I think Mr. Parker has a great deal of amusement each day and it never ceases to amaze me how wine consumers right through to experts rush to pass judgement on a man who has one of the most sophisticated palates yet seen.

As readers are aware I have just spent six weeks in the UK mostly sampling European wines and if I was to make one observation it would be that the best of them are indistinguishable from the best of the new world wines. They are now much weightier, richer and fuller and all the better for it. But we know this from innumerably tastings and competitions.

Let's examine what one expert Rod Phillips (author of a book on the history of wine), The Ottawa Citizen, March 4th, says:

"The tweet set the cat among the pigeons because Parker seemed to confirm what so many people say about him: that he tends to give high marks (on his awful 100-point scale) to wines that are full of flavour, rather than those that are more restrained and structured."

"But let's look at this idea of an Anti-Flavour Wine Elite. First, it implies that if you prefer wines that aren't blockbuster, intensely flavoured fruit-bombs, you don't like flavour. That's obviously such nonsense that it's not worth commenting on, and it shows an astonishingly limited perspective for a wine critic who's taken seriously. Then there's the notion that anyone who doesn't like intense flavour is an elitist."

"But I don't think the critical line is between intense flavour and more subtle flavour. My sense is that what's important is the balance among the various components in the wine, especially between acidity and fruit. As long as there's good balance, there's room for as much or as little intensity in the flavours as the grapes will give and the winemaker wants to extract. Parker could be right in statistical terms, because wines with intense flavour, but not much else going for them (certainly not balance), tend to be the bestsellers. Think of entry-level Australian shirazes and Argentinean malbecs. More structured and restrained wines are generally less popular. But I don't think that makes their fans an "elite" with all the moral overtones of the term."

You detect that Phillips joins a long list of commentators who for some reason do not like the impact Parker has had. What Parker draws attention to is that wines that are worth drinking must have flavour. Fortunately for Australia he saw a lot of merit in our warm climate wines, wines that had been largely ignored Internationally up to then and he pointed this out by giving a range of wines, very high scores. My tasting experience suggests that he is correct with this scoring.

To think that Parker is fixated on big, warm rich wines would be a mistake. He does though regularly draw attention to the point that the great vintages of France are associated with richer more alcoholic wines. All of the great Bordeaux come from atypical European summers.

I spent numerous hours in the company of Max Schubert and what he emphasised time and again was bringing out flavour and having this presented in a balanced and agreeable way. That seems to me a pretty good advice to follow and it fits with my tastes.

What I think Parker tries to highlight is the way many professionals can be blinded by being enthused about wines that are not very interesting to drink. Why, because they lack enough flavour. All of the balance and harmony in the world amounts to little if the wine is not appealing to drink.

Where the problem becomes apparent is naturally where grapes have a harder job getting ripe which is in cooler to cold climates. Between warm vintages it can be a struggle making pleasant tasting wine. I believe this is where Parker is aiming; the AFWE deride richly flavoured wines which are a bit clumsy from a warm climate but manage to find all sorts of reasons to like cool climate wines from lesser vintages with no flavour at all.

Perhaps I can give an example. Recently in London I wanted a Burgundy and after a few moments perusing a list spanning pages and pages I asked for help. I simply said bring me your best selection up to £200, a good amount but not enough to expect something unbelievable. Still a good sommelier should be able to deliver for this price. The wine suggested was a Vosnee Romanee 'Les Suchots' (Domaine Prieure Roch) 2001 12.5% about which the French sommelier went into raptures. As it happened my companion was less than enthusiastic having some, but not a lot of experience of this producer. I went with the advice anyway.

The wine had a gorgeous aroma and it looked like a winner. A few glasses though told us another story. It simply lacked flavour and while we drank the bottle is was OK to average, tending towards the boring. Of course one bottle makes a case for nothing. It highlights though that the argument is not about balance and finesse, important as they are, but rather, did the wine start with enough grape flavour. Then the wine maker's job is to highlight features that enhance and lift up the charm and later we consumers can decide what makes it interesting to drink.

Parker's newsletter is after all a buying journal, not a subscription magazine arguing a philosophical case to the world about how wines should be made. He may be having that impact but in essence he tastes a lot of wines and recommends those he likes. I wish I had taken his advice on Chateau Pavie and many people would now have far better cellars if they had followed exactly what he told them.