The King Has Passed His Sceptre, Robert Parker and the Beginning of Retirement?

It was with a bit of a shock that we here at the Wine Insiders office met with the news of Robert Parker’s decision to step down from the rigors of scoring our beloved California wines. There’s no doubt that Robert Parker is the most influential individual in the world of collector wines and has been for the past two decades. Parker has dramatically changed the patterns of wine purchasing as well as the style of winemaking worldwide. But as the Bard said “…I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him!” so, Friends, Romans and Countrymen, let’s get on with what this means to the average collector: if you’ve relied heavily on Parker’s scores to inform your decision to purchase or pass on a wine, you can relax.
Antonio Galloni will soon take the reins for scoring California wines (as well as keeping up with his current duties of scoring Italy, Champagne, Chablis and Cote D’Or) and while his palate is wildly different from Parker’s his experience and insight is just as thorough. There are a couple of differences. Parker enjoys wines with huge amounts of ripe fruit, chocolate and espresso while Galloni seems to enjoy varietal specific flavor profiles. While Parker handed out several 100 point scores each year, Galloni is much more restrained in his scoring. For perspective, in Parker’s Napa Cabernet review last year over 20 wines received 99 – 100 ratings. In Galloni’s initial review, ZERO wines were rated 99 – 100.
However, some will point out that while there are fewer 100’s in Galloni’s scoring his average score is actually higher. Parker’s average score is around 91 points while Galloni’s average is around 94. Also, he recently scored Cathy Corison’s Napa Valley Cab a 92 and her Kronos Vineyard Cab 94 stating that the difference is that Kronos “is made in a richer, riper style”. Maybe he put on his Parker hat for California scoring. Who knows, maybe he bought the hat for his new job!
My conclusion? The scoring may change, we may have fewer of the heart pounding 100 point scores, but Antonio Galloni is a well-respected critic and his reviews are as thorough and insightful as Parker’s.