Word: wined
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Parker's influence in the wine trade is fairly awesome itself. In France, some vintners await his thrice-yearly tasting visits with the same trepidation that restaurateurs have for the annual Le Guide Michelin ratings. Craig Goldwyn, editor of the rival International Wine Review, says Parker has "one of the greatest palates ever to walk the earth," although some writers complain that as a taster he favors strength over subtlety. (Parker, of course, denies it.) His critics also carp that his success is based primarily on a 50-to-100-point rating system for wines that is fast becoming...
...Naderite concern for protecting consumers from poor values that first inspired Parker to write about wines. The son of a Baltimore-based oil- company executive, he grew up in a family of moderate drinkers who rarely touched wine. In 1967 Parker briefly dropped out of the University of Maryland to visit his high school sweetheart (now his wife Patricia) while she was spending her college junior year in France. Fascinated by the taste and variety of wines he encountered, Parker back home bought every book he could find on the subject. A hobby inexorably became an obsession; soon...
Parker soon concluded, "There were a lot of experts, but no one was writing for the consumer." In 1977 he borrowed $2,000 from his mother and the following year published the first issue of The Wine Advocate, which was mailed speculatively to 6,000 wine lovers in the Baltimore-Washington area. About 600 readers wrote in to subscribe -- enough to finance a second issue. By 1984 The Wine Advocate had so outclassed its rivals that Parker quit his job as a lawyer to become a full-time wine critic...
...field with more than a few hustlers in search of freebies, Parker has a reputation for scrupulous probity. He never attends sponsored wine festivals or goes on paid junkets; last year alone he spent $67,000 (tax deductible) on wines for tasting. When his brother-in-law bought a vineyard in Oregon, Parker informed his Advocate readers and promised never to review any wines produced there...
Parker has some concerns about the future of his beloved beverage. He worries about a neoprohibitionist movement in the U.S. that equates wine -- "which should be drunk in moderation, as a socializing accompaniment to food" -- with hard liquor as an enemy of sobriety. Since wine's variety is its glory, he deplores what he calls the "internationalization" of styles, particularly the trend in California and elsewhere to concentrate on the production of two "supergrapes," Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. "There ought to be more experimentation with wines made from Syrah ((a Rhone varietal)) or Nebbiolo ((from northern Italy))," he says...