Wine Advocate

Walk down the aisle of any Beverages & More store and you'll be confronted by boxes and bottles of wine -- and a bevy of wine scores. There are 89 points for the Sterling Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and 90 points for a Beaulieu Vineyards Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine merchants across California display various wine ratings to inform customers and promote their wines. There are ratings from Wine Spectator, from Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate and others.

The breakup of the Wine Advocate 's Robert B. Parker with his former lead wine critic Antonio Galloni is getting ugly. You might remember that Parker sold a substantial interest in his influential wine newsletter, the most powerful in the country, to Singapore investors last December. Though Parker isn't exactly retiring, he is stepping down as editor-in-chief. And that position has been claimed not by Galloni, his heir apparent, but by Lisa Perrotti-Brown , a Master of Wine who was a Singapore-based correspondent for the publication.  Fast forward to Feb. 12: Galloni leaves to found his own website . End of story, or so it seemed.

Lettie Teague at the Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the world's most followed wine critic is stepping down. Robert M. Parker Jr. will no longer be editor in chief of the Wine Advocate , an influential newsletter the former lawyer started in 1978, with a loan from his mom. A Bloomberg story by Edmund Lee reveals that the Wine Advocate has taken on three investors from Singapore. The new editor will be the Wine Advocate's Asian correspondent, Singapore-based Master of Wine Lisa Perrotti-Brown . The headquarters will remain in Maryland, where Parker lives, but the newsletter will open a second office in Singapore, the better to serve the expanding Asian market.

Somm alert! This may just get me to watch tonight's episode of ABC's “ The Taste ,” the new cooking competition show starring Anthony Bourdain , Nigella Lawson and San Diego's hyperactive restaurateur Brian Malarkey . Why? Because the guest is winemaker André Hueston Mack , former finance guy and ex-sommelier at the French Laundry and former head sommelier at Per Se, both Thomas Keller restaurants. You can't get credentials much better than that. After four years of high-profile sommelier work, Mack left all that in 2007 to found his own wine company called Mouton Noir (Black Sheep)

The breakup of the Wine Advocate 's Robert B. Parker with his former lead wine critic Antonio Galloni is getting ugly. You might remember that Parker sold a substantial interest in his influential wine newsletter, the most powerful in the country, to Singapore investors last December. Though Parker isn't exactly retiring, he is stepping down as editor-in-chief. And that position has been claimed not by Galloni, his heir apparent, but by Lisa Perrotti-Brown , a Master of Wine who was a Singapore-based correspondent for the publication.  Fast forward to Feb. 12: Galloni leaves to found his own website . End of story, or so it seemed.

We knew this would happen, didn't we? In December, when Robert M. Parker Jr., the influential wine critic, announced that he was stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Wine Advocate and that he had taken on three investors, and named not Antonio Galloni, but Lisa Perrotti-Brown, as the new editor, it seemed inevitable that Galloni, who was widely seen as Parker's successor, would leave. Now he's jumped ship for antoniogalloni.com .  Time to do his own thing. Eric Asimov  in his Diner's Journal at the New York Times is reporting that Galloni's new site will "be aimed at younger wine consumers, using new technologies and different forms of media than the Wine Advocate , which ... still retains the flavor of print media.

If I had a spare $29.5 million or so lying around, I'd definitely be in the market for the Moraga Vineyards estate in Bel Air, which is now up for sale. You know those rows of vines you see across the 405 as you ride the tram up to the Getty Museum ? That's it. According to the winery's website, Moraga is the first commercial winery to be bonded in the city of Los Angeles since Prohibition ended in 1933. I was there once, and it really is Shangri-La, the vineyards as meticulously groomed as the romantic Provençal-style garden.

When he died during a light-plane crash in September 2008, Didier Dagueneau, then 52, had already become a legend in the world of wine. A perfectionist, he almost single-handedly changed the image of Sauvignon Blancs from Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre in France's Loire Valley. Rather than shrill, feisty whites tasting of grass, green beans, gooseberry or pipi de chat (the somehow more polite French term for cat's pee), Dagueneau's Sauvignons were statuesque, beautifully balanced wines with flavors reminiscent of citrus zests, apricot, fig, passion fruit and minerals.

On a chilly early fall morning in the Napa Valley, the Most Powerful Man in the World of Wine--unseasonably attired in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts--stands next to his white rental car in the parking lot at the Meadowood Resort. There's a boyish half-smile on his lips and a small, inch-thick notebook in his left hand. At 51, his Rabelaisian love of food--and 25 years of drinking two bottles of wine a day--have added 80 pounds to his 6-foot, 1-inch frame.

You nailed the "Parkerization" of the wine industry in your article ("Wine Is Best Served by Discussion, Not Ratings," April 2). There are so many deserving wines that actually go with food out there that aren't even on the Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate ratings. Kevin Fitzpatrick Los Angeles

We knew this would happen, didn't we? In December, when Robert M. Parker Jr., the influential wine critic, announced that he was stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Wine Advocate and that he had taken on three investors, and named not Antonio Galloni, but Lisa Perrotti-Brown, as the new editor, it seemed inevitable that Galloni, who was widely seen as Parker's successor, would leave. Now he's jumped ship for antoniogalloni.com .  Time to do his own thing. Eric Asimov  in his Diner's Journal at the New York Times is reporting that Galloni's new site will "be aimed at younger wine consumers, using new technologies and different forms of media than the Wine Advocate , which ... still retains the flavor of print media.

If I had a spare $29.5 million or so lying around, I'd definitely be in the market for the Moraga Vineyards estate in Bel Air, which is now up for sale. You know those rows of vines you see across the 405 as you ride the tram up to the Getty Museum ? That's it. According to the winery's website, Moraga is the first commercial winery to be bonded in the city of Los Angeles since Prohibition ended in 1933. I was there once, and it really is Shangri-La, the vineyards as meticulously groomed as the romantic Provençal-style garden.

Lettie Teague at the Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the world's most followed wine critic is stepping down. Robert M. Parker Jr. will no longer be editor in chief of the Wine Advocate , an influential newsletter the former lawyer started in 1978, with a loan from his mom. A Bloomberg story by Edmund Lee reveals that the Wine Advocate has taken on three investors from Singapore. The new editor will be the Wine Advocate's Asian correspondent, Singapore-based Master of Wine Lisa Perrotti-Brown . The headquarters will remain in Maryland, where Parker lives, but the newsletter will open a second office in Singapore, the better to serve the expanding Asian market.

When he died during a light-plane crash in September 2008, Didier Dagueneau, then 52, had already become a legend in the world of wine. A perfectionist, he almost single-handedly changed the image of Sauvignon Blancs from Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre in France's Loire Valley. Rather than shrill, feisty whites tasting of grass, green beans, gooseberry or pipi de chat (the somehow more polite French term for cat's pee), Dagueneau's Sauvignons were statuesque, beautifully balanced wines with flavors reminiscent of citrus zests, apricot, fig, passion fruit and minerals.

Is the Cult Cab dead? The current economy has created ominous rumblings in the market for Napa Valley wine. Demand for high-end super-premium Cabs, even so called "cult" wines, has weakened considerably with the recession. Sales are stagnant, inventories are high and direct-mail customers -- a vital piece of the high-end model -- are abandoning once-coveted positions on mailing lists, while those who have waited years for the opportunity to buy in are overwhelmed with offers. And for those wineries whose flagship productions climb above 5,000 cases, the forecast is even more challenging.

ROBERT PARKER Jr., founder of the Wine Advocate magazine and indisputably the world's most influential wine critic, has published "Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide No. 7," the first of his series to be produced by a team of writers. Since 1978, largely unaccompanied, Parker has published the Wine Advocate, a journal of tasting notes and, most notably, scores, based on a 100-point scale -- the scale that revolutionized the wine world.

Is the Cult Cab dead? The current economy has created ominous rumblings in the market for Napa Valley wine. Demand for high-end super-premium Cabs, even so called "cult" wines, has weakened considerably with the recession. Sales are stagnant, inventories are high and direct-mail customers -- a vital piece of the high-end model -- are abandoning once-coveted positions on mailing lists, while those who have waited years for the opportunity to buy in are overwhelmed with offers. And for those wineries whose flagship productions climb above 5,000 cases, the forecast is even more challenging.

Somm alert! This may just get me to watch tonight's episode of ABC's “ The Taste ,” the new cooking competition show starring Anthony Bourdain , Nigella Lawson and San Diego's hyperactive restaurateur Brian Malarkey . Why? Because the guest is winemaker André Hueston Mack , former finance guy and ex-sommelier at the French Laundry and former head sommelier at Per Se, both Thomas Keller restaurants. You can't get credentials much better than that. After four years of high-profile sommelier work, Mack left all that in 2007 to found his own wine company called Mouton Noir (Black Sheep)

Walk down the aisle of any Beverages & More store and you'll be confronted by boxes and bottles of wine -- and a bevy of wine scores. There are 89 points for the Sterling Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and 90 points for a Beaulieu Vineyards Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine merchants across California display various wine ratings to inform customers and promote their wines. There are ratings from Wine Spectator, from Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate and others.

There's a new toy on the market for folks I think of fondly as "double geeks" -- people who like both fine wine and electronic gadgets. It's called "Parker in Your Palm," and it allows users to download ratings and tasting notes from ERobertParker.com, the online version of Parker's Wine Advocate newsletter, and transfer the data into a Palm personal digital assistant.