The Wine Advocate

Background and history

Robert Parker first developed an interest in wine on a trip to France while in college studying law. In the 1970s, Parker was influenced by the activist consumerism philosophy of Ralph Nader and saw in the wine industry a lack of independent wine criticism that was not sponsored by the distributors or wineries being reviewed. He released his first edition of The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate in 1978, originally as a complimentary bi-monthly feature. It soon changed to a subscription periodical and by 1984 was successful enough that Parker could quit practicing law full-time and focus on wine reviews.

Parker and The Wine Advocate first garnered international, mainstream attention for his early prediction of the superiority and quality of the 1982 vintage of Bordeaux wine. Parker's enthusiastic endorsement created a spike of interest from American wine buyers in purchasing wine futures of this vintage, prior to its release to the public. This had the effect of raising the price dramatically for 1982 Bordeaux wines. Subscriptions to The Wine Advocate continued to grow and by 1998 had more than 45,000 subscribers from 35 countries. In 2000, an online version of the magazine was introduced, eRobertParker.com, which expanded the publication beyond Wine Advocate content to include an interactive Bulletin Board managed by Mark Squires and many articles and features not available in the printed version. By 2012, subscribership had grown to about 50,000, with 80% of readers from in the United States.

Transformation in 2012–2013

As of December 2012, many changes were announced concerning the management and format of The Wine Advocate following the sale of a majority stake in the publication to investors from Singapore. A transition from print to fully on-line distribution was announced, to take effect before the end of 2013. The role of editor-in-chief went from Parker to Lisa Perotti-Brown, a Singapore-based correspondent for the publication. A second editorial office was opened in Singapore.

Following lead critic Antonio Galloni's departure from The Wine Advocate in February 2013, three new critics were recruited adding to what Robert Parker called his "Dream Team". Jeb Dunnuck joined the publication on April 3, 2013 followed by Monica Larner and Luis Gutiérrez on April 23, 2013.

Team of Reviewers

Starting in 2001, Parker started to delegate many of the world's wine regions to a team of critics. Parker continues to review wines from Northern California including Napa and Sonoma, Bordeaux, California Retrospectives, Bordeaux Retrospectives and Value Wines.

Jeb Dunnuck reviews the wines of the Rhône Valley (both North and South), Southern France, Washington and California's Central and South Coasts.

Luis Gutiérrez (wine critic) covers the wines of Spain, Chile and Argentina.

Monica Larner is responsible for reviewing the wines of Italy.

Neal Martin (wine critic) reviews the wines of Burgundy's Côte d'Or, Macon, Beaujolais, Sauternes, South Africa, Port, Madeira and Banyuls.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW reviews the wines of Australia and New Zealand.

Mark Squires oversees the Mark Squires' Bulletin Board at eRobertParker.com and reviews the wines of Portugal, Israel, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.

Previous Wine Advocate critics include Pierre Rovani, Daniel Thomases, Jay Miller and Antonio Galloni.

Influence on the wine industry

While not the first American wine publication, nor the first to use a numerical wine ratings scale, The Wine Advocate was the first to widely adopt the 50-100 point scale and use it as parallel to the American educational grading system. This system was familiar to Robert Parker's original target audience—the average American consumer—and provided a guideline for quantifying a wine's quality in a standardize format. Retailers have used The Wine Advocate's "Parker scores" to aggressively market wines with high scores. The scores have also become focal points for collectors and wine investors who purchase highly rated wines in the hopes that the Parker scores will increase the value of the wine.

Throughout various wine regions, most notably Bordeaux, The Wine Advocate early vintage evaluation-sampled while the wine is stil in oak barrels—can have a dramatic effect on the eventual prices of all the region's wine upon their release. Individual scores of wine can also affect whether or not distributors or retailers will order the wine to sell with some retailers refusing to order wine rated below 85 points.

Wine Advocate Fund

The Wine Advocate also operates The Wine Advocate Fund For Philanthropy, a nonprofit organization that raises money primarily for cancer research. In 2008 the Fund hosted a $10,000 per plate charity dinner where the publication's 100-rated wines were served. In 2006 a similar dinner raised $1.3 million.

Criticisms

The influence of The Wine Advocate on the demand and commercial interest of wine has met with some criticism, with wineries being accused of making wines tailored to Parker's tastes. In the late 1980s, wine expert Jancis Robinson noted that Parker and The Wine Advocate were "... in danger of controlling the international fine wine market". The subject of scoring of The Wine Advocate scoring has also been criticized by wine writers, such as Hugh Johnson, who stated that wine tasting and evaluation are intrinsically subjective, with the wine having the potential to dramatically change and evolve over time. The Wine Advocate publishes on the cover of every issues its philosophy that "...wine is no different from any consumer product. There are specific standards of quality that full time wine professionals recognize".

The effects of The Wine Advocate scores can be pronounced in the retail sphere, with wine rated above 90 points usually selling well while those even in the 85–89 range, which is rated "good to very good", are often ignored by consumers.