At the beginning of last month I wrote about the scandal surrounding the former Master of Wine Pancho Campo and his relationship with Jay Miller, writer for the Wine Advocate. Whatever the definitive truth behind this story, Jay Miller eventually resigned from his post as a contributor for Robert Parker Jr. and has since been replaced by the English writer Neal Martin.

Shortly before Mr Miller resigned we received notice that he would be visiting the offices of our denomination to make an extensive tasting of our Rias Baxias wines. At first the tasting was postponed, until it was eventually cancelled completely later in the year. We were never given any official explanation and heard nothing more until now – a new tasting would be conducted by a new taster, or ’emissary’ as he was described in our local press.

From my days in the UK trade I am fortunate to know many English wine writers on a personal basis, but I have to confess that Neal Martin is a name that is new to me. After working in Japan, Mr Martin discovered wine more or less by accident, working for a Japanese export company where one of the commodities on their export list just happened to be wine. After completing various courses with the WSET he set up his own wine blog wine-journal.com, and then, just a few short years later was approached by Robert Parker Jr. to become a contributor to the Wine Advocate, covering Spain and parts of South America. He is also a keen music lover.

At the beginning of last month I wrote about the scandal surrounding the former Master of Wine Pancho Campo and his relationship with Jay Miller, writer for the Wine Advocate. Whatever the definitive truth behind this story, Jay Miller eventually resigned from his post as a contributor for Robert Parker Jr. and has since been replaced by the English writer Neal Martin.

Shortly before Mr Miller resigned we received notice that he would be visiting the offices of our denomination to make an extensive tasting of our Rias Baxias wines. At first the tasting was postponed, until it was eventually cancelled completely later in the year. We were never given any official explanation and heard nothing more until now – a new tasting would be conducted by a new taster, or ’emissary’ as he was described in our local press.

From my days in the UK trade I am fortunate to know many English wine writers on a personal basis, but I have to confess that Neal Martin is a name that is new to me. After working in Japan, Mr Martin discovered wine more or less by accident, working for a Japanese export company where one of the commodities on their export list just happened to be wine. After completing various courses with the WSET he set up his own wine blog wine-journal.com, and then, just a few short years later was approached by Robert Parker Jr. to become a contributor to the Wine Advocate, covering Spain and parts of South America. He is also a keen music lover.