Big Changes at the Wine Advocate - The Antonio Galloni Thread

[Ken V]

According to an email from erp, Antonio Galloni will now cover Burgundy (specifically "the red and white Burgundies of the Côte d'Or as well as the crisp white wines of Chablis") and the wines of California, in addition to continuing with Italy and Champagne.

[M.Kaplan]

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

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[Eric LeVine]

Well congrats to Antonio!

[Chris Bero]

Very interesting.

Isn't he widely considered the most reputable and liked critic at TWA? I'm just going off of the fact that I have seen way more positive comments about him than negative.

[Eric LeVine]

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[C. Grimm]

Fits completely with the comment RMP made about Antonio being the heir apparent, if there was one.

[Ken V]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40244

[Nick Ryan]

Well well well... are new cults going to be able to make their reputations on an AG 100 instead of an RMP 100? Nobody lives forever so this had to come eventually, but I'm surprised Parker is giving up on CA so soon.

[H Wallace Jr]

[Charlie Fu]

It looks like Parker is still doing CA. Does this mean more emphasis on pinot by AG in CA?

[Roy Piper]

The only news that would be bigger than this from a critical perspective is if/when he gives up Bordeaux. This is pretty big news, really. I have almost no knowledge of what Galloni likes stylistically, but you can bet his first Cali review will be one of the most intensely watched and studied ever.

[Steve Nordhoff]

Say goodbye to regular CA 100 pointers.

[John Liotta]

Say goodbye to regular CA 100 pointers.

At least Quilceda still has Jay Miller!

[Michael Bowden]

Fits completely with the comment RMP made about Antonio being the heir apparent, if there was one.

No brainier here.....this is just a step in AG taking over TWA.

[Lewis Dawson]

Fits completely with the comment RMP made about Antonio being the heir apparent, if there was one.

What comment? I guess I missed that. Do you have a link? TIA

[Eric LeVine]

Fits completely with the comment RMP made about Antonio being the heir apparent, if there was one.

What comment? I guess I missed that. Do you have a link? TIA

viewtopic.php?p=480644#p480644
Very end of Randy's post.

[Lewis Dawson]

I'll add my voice to the others, congrats to Antonio, seems well respected, but I admit I have not checked out much he has written. This seems like very big news to me. Fits with Parker taking a bit more time to enjoy himself, reap the fruits of his labors, so to speak.

I wonder if Galloni will clash with Laube more than Parker has regarding producer styles in California???

[Rick Nathanson]

I think its more exciting that he is covering the Cote d'or.

[David M. Bueker]

Anotnio is a great guy and a great critic/writer, but man is he going to be stretched.

[Z. Hu]

When did Miller stop reviewing Australia? Excited that Galloni will cover CA now but hopefully he's able to review the wines early and not after the wines have already been released.

[Anthony Lombardi]

Really good to read this. As soon as they have different people covering Washington, Oregon, and Portugal, and a different bulletin board moderator that I can take seriously then I might even subscribe again.

[Roger Nellans]

I think its more exciting that he is covering the Cote d'or.

It will be interesting. I am attending the seminar hosted by Antonio "A Blind Tasting of
Grand Cru Burgundy & Piedmont Greats" next Friday at La Paulee in NYC. I hope to get some feedback from him on this news.

[Eric LeVine]

One thing I am presuming is that with this change that Antonio is reviewing wines full time now and likely is no longer at DB. If not then he is indeed SuperMan!

[Z. Hu]

One thing I am presuming is that with this change that Antonio is reviewing wines full time now and likely is no longer at DB. If not then he is indeed SuperMan!

DB? Dave&Busters? Antonio should not be playing arcade games at Dave&Busters while drinking so much wine.

[Eric LeVine]

I believe that Antonio has been working at Deutsche Bank since he graduated from business school, and the wine writing is a side gig. I am sure the New Yorkers know for sure.

[Alan C h a n]

Exciting news. Could be the start of a shift back towards valuing beauty and nuance more than it has been in mainstream wine criticism in a while. The beginning of the end of "Parkerized" wines?

If Antonio can last! He's basically doing the workload of a Galloni, a Meadows and half a Parker now, if I'm reading this correctly!

[John J. Vachon]

I was one of the most vocal on Burgundy reports in Parkers

publication but it was based on timing and that was Parkers

call. But to replace D.S. is crazy he was very good when

the info was reported.

[Berry Crawford]

huh?

[Peter Tryba]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40244

[Kris Patten]

Kind of a shitty title when it seems you like David.

[John Morris]

Wow!

This doesn't seem good for anyone. David is always insightful, so it's a shame to lose him. And how can Antonio cover Italy thoroughly while coming up to speed on Burgundy?

[WvanGorp]

Way more than this. Antonio has also taken over coverage of California wine as well. Antonio = TWA now.

[WvanGorp]

Done deal. Parker giving up coverage of California to Galloni, who also takes over coverage of Burgundy.

[billnanson]

DS 'got it' as BH would say. I don't know about AG, lets's see.

But any subscription magazine needs to have some consistency if you're going to use it as a reference point - doesn't seem to have been WA's strongpoint - but hey, I don't think it is particularly important for them (Neal Martin aside) their officialy Burgundy correspondent only delivered 06 notes up until now didn't he...(?) I'm just kinda surprised that Neal didn't get the gig - maybe he turned it down, clearly a dodgy audience those burgundy drinkers... ;0)

[Brady Daniels]

deleted and re-posted below.