I really will miss the all the fun he created after his tastebuds and judgement started to degenerate
But in the beginning (before Sierra Carche etc, etc, etc) I really was inspired by him
And off course I wish him all the best in his future life
He was neither the first to say this nor was he likely the best at promoting that idea.
Most of the well-known British wine writers initially reacted negatively to Parker because they felt his work implied pretty much the opposite.
He has had a tremendous impact, and many things have changed for the better in large part because of him.
It’s always difficult to separate out cause and effect, though… in some ways his strongest asset was his timing.
I emailed him a note yesterday congratulating him and wishing him well. Again, if not for his bulletin board, I doubt I ever would have had the idea to create CellarTracker. Part of his very gracious response: “a million thanks Eric…we both were fortunate to have good luck,good timing and some talent…”
I opened a 2003 Pegau Cuvee da Capo in his honor last night.
Most of the British writers were ticked off that they were going to stop getting free wine.
Would you be so kind as to list the “changed for the better” part?
The whole “your own palate” thing is a nice phrase. And totally meaningless.
I think you have quickly figured it out. One trip to a wine shop and you’d have had that info. I KNOW you would be exactly where you are now…the hobby, storage, tasting, etc. was well established before the Advocate arrived. You might not have the 20-25 point “100 point wine scale” we do now, but that would be no loss.
It’s not as if there would have never been electricity without Ben Franklin, or light bulbs without Edison.
How do people think the great vintages were ‘established’ prior to the Advocate? Were wine lovers randomly buying vintages as though they were all the same?
I wonder about you young people!
Would you be able to discern “good” rock music without Lester Bangs? How would you know what movies to watch without Siskel and Ebert?
Not if you came of age in Chico. While the stacks of kegs of beer were kept well chilled, the wine sat on pallets behind the store before it was put on the shelves in the barely air conditioned retail space. I bought '73 and '74 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cab (based on the Time magazine article about the Spurrier tasting in Paris - hadn’t heard of RMP yet) and they were dreadfully cooked. Made me wonder what all the fuss was about …
A well deserved retirement.
Love and respect the man.
Objectivity at the highest level!
FIFY
Best wishes for a long, happy, and healthy retirement! That said, I thought he had been more or less retired for the past several years…I don’t think he’s provided a tasting note at Wine Advocate since the end of 2016.
Deleted.
Best in Retirement to Robert Parker Jr. He certainly was my go to critic when I started enjoying wine and up until his semi retirement several years ago. I appreciate that taste preferences for wine are extremely diverse but consider myself fortunate that my preferences have always aligned well with RMP’s.
Bruce, it is an idiom stateside. It does mean he was the first chronologically; it means, roughly, “he’d be eager or in a rush to tell you that you should rely on your own palate.” And he did say that, in every issue of TWA. He also had the unfortunate habit (mostly on line) of disparaging those with whom he disagreed, but that’s a subject for another day
I meant it in the colloqial sense - that oft heard phrase “Xxxxx would be the first one to tell you…” meaning that person thought it important to note what is being said.
Obviously I am not claiming Parker was the first or only person to make such a wide sweeping statement- merely that he put great emphasis on it.
Robert Parker was so instrumental in my career over the years. Oh how I remember waiting breathlessly for that newsletter to show up in the mail every other month. How cool we were when we decided to get it first class to get a jump on other retailers. How I would mindlessly go nuts every great Bordeaux vintage after that first report would come out. How mad I got when he was so hard on Burgundy back in the 1980s, and how excited I would get after his ‘importer spotlights’ on Kermit Lynch and many others…
I never worried about whether my palate correlated with his, because it didn’t matter, he was so prophetic on where the buying public’s palate was going. Of course it got frustrating after a while when it seemed every winemaker in the world was setting aside “Parker” barrels for his visits, and it seemed the world’s wines just got riper and riper every year.
But what a fun ride it was - happy Retirement Mr. Parker…
Wine shipping for one. In the 80’s there were an astounding number of heat damaged bottles from Europe on shelves of US wine stores. I believe Parker and Kermit Lynch were the loudest voices railing against shipping practices at that time.
I must say, I am sad to hear of his retirement. He was the person that got me interested in wine back in the early 1980’s. My first wine 
I bought was some 1982 Bordeaux based on his reviews. Whether you will admit it or not he changed, for the better, how wine was made. He forced wine makers to improve there methods and that was good for you and me. He will be greatly missed! Enjoy your retirement Mr. Parker! 
as many others have opined, Parker’s Wine Advocate was important to me in the 80s and early 90s. Though I soon veered toward Burgundy where he and later Rovani were of little help, my early formative years with California, Rhone, and Bordeaux were greatly advanced by Parker. He was for many of us a stepping stone or better yet, a gateway, to other vinous pursuits. And I am grateful to him for that, wish him well.
A linguistic tangent here, but…
Where I’m from (rural NY) the preferred phrasing would be “He’d be the first to say…”.
“He was the first to say…” would be considered a definitive declaration of chronology meaning that nobody had said it before him.
Some would argue that it’s the same subject.
I’d be inclined to agree.