The Wine Advocate’s “New Team America”
The hot gossip in the wine world is that the new writers for Robert Parker's Wine Advocate were announced today, following last week's departure of Pierre Rovani and Daniel Thomases. This is the first time Parker has opened up so many wine regions and so widely shared the reviewing duties since he started his newsletter nearly 30 years ago. It seems Parker’s New Team America is going global. Parker is quoted as saying: that The Wine Advocate:
"will expand coverage by at least 30-50 percent as many areas that have been short-changed because of a lack of person-power will now receive full coverage."
The new writers and their regions of responsibility are as follows:
Antonio Galloni -All of Italy
David Schildknecht - Germany, Austria, Central Europe, Alsace, Burgundy, the Loire Valley, Languedoc-Roussillon, Champagne, New Zealand and South Africa. In his spare time, David will also taste wines made in America’s Eastern and Midwestern regions
Dr. J. Miller - The Pacific Northwest, Spain, Australia, and South America.
Mark Squires - e-Bob and the non-fortified wines of Portugal
Mystery Critic At Large - ??? Any guesses ???
Parker himself will focus on Bordeaux, California, the Rhone Valley and Provence. He is obviously keeping the plums for himself. David Schildknecht has a massive area to cover and if he wasn’t rushed off his feet before, he will be now.
Does Parker delegating his responsibility mean that he is preparing to retire? As each of these new writers has a different perspective to Parker this move highlights the separating of The Wine Advocate from Parker’s palate. Appointing Gallioni and Schildknecht was a smart move. Gallioni brings with him his readers from the Piedmont Report which he started in 2004. It is read in over 25 different countries. He was just starting to widen his base outside Italy when Parker snapped him up. Schildknecht previously divided his time between reporting from Austria, Germany and Hungary for Wine & Spirits and the International Wine Cellar, and importing the wines of France for Vintner Select. He has just completed revising material on German wines for the upcoming 3rd edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine, for Jancis Robinson.
Parker will definitely attract new readers to the Wine Advocate as Gallioni and Schildknecht have their own following. I would be interested to see the sales figures of The Wine Advocate in recent times? Has it been losing sales due to its founder’s polemic stance on big, beefy wines? Has Parker re-examined his nest egg as retirement advances and found it wanting?
Dr. Miller and Parker have a past history. According to his biographic on the Bin 604 website www.bin604.com Miller met Parker while working part time as a wine consultant for Wells Liquors. Parker invited Jay to work as his assistant on the Wine Advocate. Miller left The Wine Advocate1988 to work full time in the wine wholesale business. He started Bin 604 in late 2001. Miller is somewhat of an unknown quantity as how much experience he has of tasting Australian wine and Portuguese fortified wines is hard to gauge.
Mark Squires’ Bulletin Board, e-Bob, is a discussion forum. Squires ran this US-centred discussion board independently for many years, but was "taken over" by Parker in 2002 when the latter site launched. It plays host to a very active and knowledgeable gang of wine lovers, though conversation is a little US dominated. Parker is also testing him out by giving him the dry wines of Portugal to investigate.
As for the Mystery Critic At Large? Anyone’s guess. Jancis Robinson thinks it could be Michel Bettane, France's leading wine writer. See www.jancisrobinson.com.
It seems that The Wine Advocate has no choice but to diversify. Whether it can isolate itself from Parker’s dominant influence is another matter. Maybe this heralds Parker’s self imposed swan song. Maybe The Wine Advocate will rise like a phoenix from the ashes; maybe it will float like a dead duck. There are no maybes about the benefit it will have on the world of wine where one critic’s point system has led to inflated prices and inflated egos.
"will expand coverage by at least 30-50 percent as many areas that have been short-changed because of a lack of person-power will now receive full coverage."
The new writers and their regions of responsibility are as follows:
Antonio Galloni -All of Italy
David Schildknecht - Germany, Austria, Central Europe, Alsace, Burgundy, the Loire Valley, Languedoc-Roussillon, Champagne, New Zealand and South Africa. In his spare time, David will also taste wines made in America’s Eastern and Midwestern regions
Dr. J. Miller - The Pacific Northwest, Spain, Australia, and South America.
Mark Squires - e-Bob and the non-fortified wines of Portugal
Mystery Critic At Large - ??? Any guesses ???
Parker himself will focus on Bordeaux, California, the Rhone Valley and Provence. He is obviously keeping the plums for himself. David Schildknecht has a massive area to cover and if he wasn’t rushed off his feet before, he will be now.
Does Parker delegating his responsibility mean that he is preparing to retire? As each of these new writers has a different perspective to Parker this move highlights the separating of The Wine Advocate from Parker’s palate. Appointing Gallioni and Schildknecht was a smart move. Gallioni brings with him his readers from the Piedmont Report which he started in 2004. It is read in over 25 different countries. He was just starting to widen his base outside Italy when Parker snapped him up. Schildknecht previously divided his time between reporting from Austria, Germany and Hungary for Wine & Spirits and the International Wine Cellar, and importing the wines of France for Vintner Select. He has just completed revising material on German wines for the upcoming 3rd edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine, for Jancis Robinson.
Parker will definitely attract new readers to the Wine Advocate as Gallioni and Schildknecht have their own following. I would be interested to see the sales figures of The Wine Advocate in recent times? Has it been losing sales due to its founder’s polemic stance on big, beefy wines? Has Parker re-examined his nest egg as retirement advances and found it wanting?
Dr. Miller and Parker have a past history. According to his biographic on the Bin 604 website www.bin604.com Miller met Parker while working part time as a wine consultant for Wells Liquors. Parker invited Jay to work as his assistant on the Wine Advocate. Miller left The Wine Advocate1988 to work full time in the wine wholesale business. He started Bin 604 in late 2001. Miller is somewhat of an unknown quantity as how much experience he has of tasting Australian wine and Portuguese fortified wines is hard to gauge.
Mark Squires’ Bulletin Board, e-Bob, is a discussion forum. Squires ran this US-centred discussion board independently for many years, but was "taken over" by Parker in 2002 when the latter site launched. It plays host to a very active and knowledgeable gang of wine lovers, though conversation is a little US dominated. Parker is also testing him out by giving him the dry wines of Portugal to investigate.
As for the Mystery Critic At Large? Anyone’s guess. Jancis Robinson thinks it could be Michel Bettane, France's leading wine writer. See www.jancisrobinson.com.
It seems that The Wine Advocate has no choice but to diversify. Whether it can isolate itself from Parker’s dominant influence is another matter. Maybe this heralds Parker’s self imposed swan song. Maybe The Wine Advocate will rise like a phoenix from the ashes; maybe it will float like a dead duck. There are no maybes about the benefit it will have on the world of wine where one critic’s point system has led to inflated prices and inflated egos.
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