If your wine is awarded 100 points by Soo Hoo Khoon Peng, is that something that will change the future of your wine cellar? Let me explain. Soo Hoo Khoon Peng is a Singaporean wine importer who has not only paid USD 15million to buy The Wine Advocate franchise from Robert M. Parker Jnr., but who has also taken over both editorial control and control of the business as a whole. This being the case, then every serious wine consumer is probably asking themselves the question “can this be the beginning of the end of the Parker empire?”

There are some serious wine journalists around who have already speculated that Parker’s influence may be in decline, and that many people simply cannot afford to pay attention to his comments – the reason being that his scoring system has, single-handedly, made some wines so expensive that they are now well beyond the reach of many a mere mortal on the street, or perhaps I should say, in their local wine store. It is also said that the only people now interested in his rating system are the property owners themselves, who can sit back and watch the value of their property and vineyards increase by millions virtually overnight.

Apparently Mr Parker himself will be staying on, drawing a salary from the new owners to judge the wines of Bordeaux and the Rhône. After all, without any input whatsoever, the value of the Wine Advocate brand would evaporate very quickly. Personally I have the feeling that Parker has made the decision to quit while he’s still ahead, a step towards retirement if you will, and with USD 10million in his back pocket, who can blame him? Also, whilst I can appreciate that his scoring system may have helped many a consumer make his or her wine selection, I can’t help but feel that his influence has long been out of control. After all, like art, taste in wine is purely subjective, and the hugely complex faculties of taste and smell cannot, and should not, be over-simplified and reduced to a simple scoring system.

In the past Parker has sometimes been referred to as “the Emperor of Wine”, and so we have to ask ourselves, if his influence really is in decline, who will take over the mantle? Certainly as far as the U.S. market is concerned, a good candidate might be Stephen Tanzer, who I should tell you, is more a man after my own taste. The one thing that I have always hated about Parker ratings is that he was, and still is, swayed by the power and concentration of a wine, so much so that the very vinification of Bordeaux wines has changed dramatically during his reign. Over-extracted wines became the norm, and subtlety and finesse were often lost somewhere in the background, becoming almost insignificant. As a result, some Bordeaux and Rhône wines virtually required tasting with a fork!

By contrast, Mr Tanzer who runs the International Wine Cellar, appears to favour finesse in wine, rather like myself. As a wine buyer working for a wholesale company buying wine largely for distribution to the restaurant trade, I was always on the look out for wines with finesse and structure that would marry with food, rather than dominate them. Any influential, like-minded wine critic will therefore be a breath of fresh air as far as I’m concerned. Like me, Stephen Tanzer is also a great lover of Burgundy, at one time almost my second home as I spent at least two or three weeks a year scouring the cellars of the area, tasting literally hundreds of fine wines from top producers…… (And I used to get paid too!)

I am very encouraged to learn that  Mr Tanzer is apparently an aficionado of cooler-climate wines, “I like white wines that are minerally, saline and energetic,” he says. A perfect description of Castro Martin albariño.

If your wine is awarded 100 points by Soo Hoo Khoon Peng, is that something that will change the future of your wine cellar? Let me explain. Soo Hoo Khoon Peng is a Singaporean wine importer who has not only paid USD 15million to buy The Wine Advocate franchise from Robert M. Parker Jnr., but who has also taken over both editorial control and control of the business as a whole. This being the case, then every serious wine consumer is probably asking themselves the question “can this be the beginning of the end of the Parker empire?”

There are some serious wine journalists around who have already speculated that Parker’s influence may be in decline, and that many people simply cannot afford to pay attention to his comments – the reason being that his scoring system has, single-handedly, made some wines so expensive that they are now well beyond the reach of many a mere mortal on the street, or perhaps I should say, in their local wine store. It is also said that the only people now interested in his rating system are the property owners themselves, who can sit back and watch the value of their property and vineyards increase by millions virtually overnight.

Apparently Mr Parker himself will be staying on, drawing a salary from the new owners to judge the wines of Bordeaux and the Rhône. After all, without any input whatsoever, the value of the Wine Advocate brand would evaporate very quickly. Personally I have the feeling that Parker has made the decision to quit while he’s still ahead, a step towards retirement if you will, and with USD 10million in his back pocket, who can blame him? Also, whilst I can appreciate that his scoring system may have helped many a consumer make his or her wine selection, I can’t help but feel that his influence has long been out of control. After all, like art, taste in wine is purely subjective, and the hugely complex faculties of taste and smell cannot, and should not, be over-simplified and reduced to a simple scoring system.

In the past Parker has sometimes been referred to as “the Emperor of Wine”, and so we have to ask ourselves, if his influence really is in decline, who will take over the mantle? Certainly as far as the U.S. market is concerned, a good candidate might be Stephen Tanzer, who I should tell you, is more a man after my own taste. The one thing that I have always hated about Parker ratings is that he was, and still is, swayed by the power and concentration of a wine, so much so that the very vinification of Bordeaux wines has changed dramatically during his reign. Over-extracted wines became the norm, and subtlety and finesse were often lost somewhere in the background, becoming almost insignificant. As a result, some Bordeaux and Rhône wines virtually required tasting with a fork!

By contrast, Mr Tanzer who runs the International Wine Cellar, appears to favour finesse in wine, rather like myself. As a wine buyer working for a wholesale company buying wine largely for distribution to the restaurant trade, I was always on the look out for wines with finesse and structure that would marry with food, rather than dominate them. Any influential, like-minded wine critic will therefore be a breath of fresh air as far as I’m concerned. Like me, Stephen Tanzer is also a great lover of Burgundy, at one time almost my second home as I spent at least two or three weeks a year scouring the cellars of the area, tasting literally hundreds of fine wines from top producers…… (And I used to get paid too!)

I am very encouraged to learn that  Mr Tanzer is apparently an aficionado of cooler-climate wines, “I like white wines that are minerally, saline and energetic,” he says. A perfect description of Castro Martin albariño.