THE EMPEROR OF WINE
The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American
Taste
By Elin McCoy
Reviewed
by Nancy Huang
Any
person involved in the world of wine has, to some degree, heard
about Robert M. Parker, Jr., wine critic and publisher of one
of the most influential newsletters in the business: The Wine
Advocate. His fans might call him a wine crusader, a driven
man whose keen palate and empirical tastings revolutionized the
wine industry. His critics might call him egotistical—maniacal,
even—a self-proclaimed judge whose arbitrary but widely
popular 100-point system could destroy wineries with the stroke
of his pen.
Editor
and wine columnist Elin McCoy exposes the public’s delicate
love-hate relationship with Parker in The Emperor of Wine,
a biography of the famous (and infamous) wine critic. McCoy’s
journalistic style leaves no details behind in this thorough,
almost cheeky, account of Parker’s life. We learn everything
about this man, from his hash-buying excursion to Morocco to the
intimate details of the lawsuit filed by Burgundy producer François
Faiveley, an event that left Parker unwelcome in that particular
region of France. Granted, some facts are extraneous, such as
Parker’s experience with snobby waiters during his first
trip to France, but we still welcome the vividness that McCoy
pumps into her characters.
McCoy
sets her story in the late 1960s and early 70s, at the cusp of
America’s rise in the wine industry. It follows Parker’s
discovery of wine, his declaration against French wines that did
not live up to their prestigious name, and his preference for
robust, fruity wines that significantly helped to boost California’s
wine reputation.
Unfortunately,
McCoy’s passion for detail goes overboard as she delves
into the history of wine and wine critics. Her meticulous descriptions
of the development of American and British wine critics are disjointed
and misplaced, and she ignores the graceful chronology that she
uses in describing Parker. While wine fanatics may appreciate
the information, the book plods along during these history lessons,
which happen early in the book.
Beyond
the slow moments, however, is an interesting chronicle of Parker’s
rise from middle-class American farm boy to the powerful but controversial
wine critic he is today. McCoy makes no mystery of which side
of the love-hate relationship with Parker that she is on; she
was one of his first editors and has been a longtime friend ever
since. All biases aside, this book is a charming and intriguing
read, a biography of a man with a passion and a powerful palate.
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