Ende einer Ära: Parker übergibt Kalifornien an Galloni

(NM) Robert Parker wird in Zukunft keine neuen Weine aus Kalifornien mehr für sein „Wine Advocate“ bewerten. Er übergibt diese Aufgabe an Antonio Galloni, seines Zeichen Chef-Tester/Kritiker für den Advocate der Weine aus Italien, der Champagne, Chablis, Côte d’Or und nun auch Kalifornien.

Gerade für seine Kritiken der italienischen Weine erntet Galloni viel Zuspruch und Lob. Er gilt als eher konservativer Kritiker, der im Vergleich zu Robert Parker zurückhaltend mit 95+ Bewertungen umgeht. Somit ist nun ein eher „europäischer“ Gaumen im Land der überschwinglichen Fruchtexzessen unterwegs. Gerade basierend auf der Tatsache, dass in Kalifornien „Winemaker“ eingestellt werden, um einen 90+ Parker Punkte Wein zu vinifizieren, ist dies eine extrem spannende Entwicklung. Gibt es also in Zukunft „europäischere“ Weine aus dem Westen der USA? Wir dürfen gespannt sein!

Hier nunr der original Text an alle eRobertParker.com Abonnenten:

„Dear eRobertParker.com Subscriber:

I am thrilled to announce that Antonio Galloni will have expanded responsibilities for The Wine Advocate and http://www.eRobertParker.com as of February 1, 2011. I would like to take credit for my powers of persuasion over recent years in trying to convince Antonio of the virtues of covering additional wine regions, but if truth be known, the writing was always on the wall that his enviable talents and passion for this field would ultimately prevail, and the beneficiaries are the world’s wine consumers.

Antonio will continue to focus on the wines of Italy as well as Champagne, but two new areas of responsibility for Antonio will include the red and white Burgundies of the Côte d’Or as well as the crisp white wines of Chablis, and the wines of California. These vast regions will benefit from the increased depth of coverage, as will all the major wine regions of the world.

Additionally, sectors that merit dramatically more attention but have not had sufficient coverage, including Beaujolais and the Mâconnais (now economically as important as the Cote d’Or and Chablis) will be put under a microscope by David Schildknecht, who will continue with his other areas of responsibility but will be freed from covering the Cote d’Or and Chablis.

I will turn to something I have long played around with in The Wine Advocate but have rarely had enough time to do. Older readers may remember the vintage retrospectives called „What About Now?“ With Antonio turning his attention to California, I am going to begin a series of horizontal and vertical tastings of perfectly stored California wines that will give readers insight into how they are developing. It has been a long-term ambition of mine to include more reports on older vintages, and this change will allow me to do this not only in California, but also to increase the older vintage reports for Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley.

In all other respects, the staff assignments at The Wine Advocate remain identical. I hope all of you share our great enthusiasm for the fact that Antonio Galloni has finally taken the plunge and will be devoting most of his time to his wine writing career, a job for which he seems particularly well-suited and sure to excel.

All the best in wine and life,
Robert M. Parker, Jr.

P.S. The Wine Advocate writer assignments are:

Robert Parker – Bordeaux, the Rhône Valley, older vintages of Bordeaux, Rhône and California wines
Antonio Galloni – Italy, Champagne, Chablis, Côte d’Or, California
David Schildknecht – Germany, Loire, Beaujolais and Mâconnais, Eastern U.S., Austria,
Eastern Europe, Languedoc-Roussillon, Jura
Jay Miller – Oregon, Washington, South America, Spain
Lisa Perrotti – Brown – Australia, New Zealand
Neal Martin – Critic-at-Large overlapping all areas, plus specific reviewer of South Africa
Mark Squires – Bulletin Board supervision and occasional articles on Israel, Portugal, and Greece

Antonio Gallonio auf Twitter