Not only does he taste 10,000 wines a year, but he stores the sensation of each one into a permanent gustatory memory. When I asked him about the mechanical aspects of his work, he told me in a matter-of-fact way that he remembers every wine he has tasted over the past thirty-two years and, within a few points, every score he has given as well. That amounts to several hundred thousand relevant memories, which apparently he can summon up at will. He said he has no idea how he does this, except perhaps through intense concentration while tasting wine.
The latest
Atlantic Monthly includes several articles that are well worth reading, including this fascinating and lengthy profile of
wine critic Robert Parker that's both a three-dimensional portrait of the man himself and an introduction to the complicated skullduggery that is the international wine biz. Also: an article on the phenomenon of
physically healthy people who want amputations gives way to a broader meditation on how mental disorders spread, and whether physical surgery is the right way to deal with them.