Big Changes at the Wine Advocate - The Antonio Galloni Thread

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.

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" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 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


Well congrats to Antonio!

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.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

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

http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40244" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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.

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

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.

Say goodbye to regular CA 100 pointers.

At least Quilceda still has Jay Miller!

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

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

http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic.php?p=480644#p480644" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Very end of Randy’s post.

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???

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

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

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.