Robert Parker, Anatomie d’un Mythe

Robert Parker has been writing about wines for the last forty years. The Monkton, Maryland resident and former attorney fell in love with wine on a 1967 trip to France and has since become one of the most recognized and respected wine critics in the world. He is considered by many to be “the” authority on wine, especially French Bordeaux’s. Well known for tasting wines “blind” (without knowledge of the producer as to prevent bias in scoring wines) and his knack for rating wine vintages, Parker has recently been the center of allegations of the integrity of his practice.

In a new book written by his former assistant Hanna Agostini, Parker is under the gun as having written about wines he hadn’t actually tasted and for being “in bed” with many French wine-maker’s, which is an obvious conflict of interest for someone who is trying to remain objective about wines. Agostini makes the claim that Parker was often invited to elegant meals consisting of expensive food and wines which were funded by producers of the wines he rated highly. She cites personal correspondence with Parker in which he admits his reviewing a wine without “knowing” it.

As expected, supporters of Robert Parker find these claims to be absurd and are the first to point out that Ms. Agostini was fired by Parker in 2003 and is simply trying to get revenge for her being let go. Further, wine-maker’s and associates of Parker in France have gone as far as trying to have sections of the book removed (by law) to prevent false assumptions about their ties to and interactions with Parker. The French legal system has ruled that the material in the book is suitable for publication without editing, although an appeal is likely to happen.

Personally, I have strong sentiments against the practice of giving favorable reviews in return for compensation (of any sort) or reviewing wines that I have not tried. These actions compromise the integrity of wine reviews as a whole and worse, can lead consumers to try wines that are over-priced or just plain bad!

Without having read the book (only available in France, try Amazon.fr), and going by what has been published in other sources, I’m inclined to give Robert Parker the benefit of doubt. Innocent until proven guilty, I guess. But I will say that I would not be surprised if in his almost forty years of wine writing and traveling the world, he didn’t receive a kickback of some sort for a favorable review. Nor would it surprise me if he once or twice (or more) wrote about wines he didn’t actually try.

I will continue reading reviews by Robert Parker and taking his recommendations to heart. Whether or not he’s guilty of the accusations made by Ms. Agostini, one thing is for sure, Robert Parker knows wine and is still today one of the most influential and respected wine critics in the world.