Reviewers
Robert Parker
“Robert M. Parker, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 23, 1947. An honors graduate of the University of Maryland, with a major in History, and a minor in Art History, he attended the University of Maryland Law School, graduating in 1973. For ten and one half years he was an Attorney, a Senior Attorney, and later an Assistant General Counsel for the Farm Credit Banks of Baltimore. On March 9, 1984 he resigned his position as Assistant General Counsel to devote full attention to wine writing.
His interest in wine began in 1967, when he spent a month abroad during his Christmas vacation, visiting a girlfriend (who is now his wife of 37 years) at the University of Strasbourg in Alsace, France.
By 1975, he began to think about writing about wine and commencing his own “independent, consumer’s guide,” largely because of the paucity of reliable information on wine quality. Friends and family advised that his career in law should be given top priority, and that wine writing was a romantic, unprofitable profession.
Nevertheless, by 1978, the concept of a wine publication was formulated. The first issue of The Wine Advocate, a complimentary issue, was sent out to mailing lists purchased from several major wine retailers. The initial number of charter subscribers in August, 1978, was less than 600.
Twenty-eight years later, The Wine Advocate has over 50,000 subscribers, in every state in the United States, and in over 37 foreign countries. Today, virtually every knowledgeable observer agrees that The Wine Advocate exerts the most significant influence on the serious wine consumer’s buying habits and trends not only in America, but in France, England, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and China.
In addition to doing the writing and tasting for The Wine Advocate, which is published bi-monthly in Parkton, Maryland, Mr. Parker is a contributing editor for Food and Wine Magazine and Business Week. He has also written periodically for the English magazine The Field and has been the wine critic for France’s L’Express magazine, the first time a non-Frenchman has held this position. Since 2006, he has written a weekly column for the highly respected American magazine Business Week.
In 2002, he founded erobertparker.com, which has become the number one visited website on wine according to data registered by Alexia.com.
Robert M. Parker, Jr., who, in February, 1999, was profiled in a two part front page article in the Los Angeles Times by their Pulitzer Prize winning media critic, the late David Shaw, has written fourteen books on wine that have been best sellers not only in the United States, but also in their translated versions in France, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Poland, China, Spain, South Korea, and Russia. In the Los Angeles Times, Shaw called Parker “a fierce champion of the wine consumer,” “the most powerful critic of any kind, any where,” and “a sensualist, passionate lover of wine, who is largely responsible for the vastly improved quality of wines made throughout the western world and for the exponential growth in interest, knowledge, and sophistication of those who drink wine.”
Robert Parker lives in the countryside of northern Maryland with his wife, Patricia, his daughter, Maia, and various basset hounds and English bulldogs.”
Jeremy Oliver
“Jeremy Oliver is one of Australia’s foremost wine writers and presenters. He is a widely read and fully independent commentator whose words are published in several countries. In January 2005 he was named the inaugural Wine Writer of the Year by the widely circulated Australian Wine Selector magazine.
Jeremy began writing about wine in 1984 with the release of his first book, Thirst for Knowledge, in the process becoming the world’s youngest published wine author. He has since published another fourteen books, plus hundreds of articles all over the world. He has hosted most of the leading wine events in Australia and also works in an ambassadorial capacity for Australian wine in export markets.
His books include the best-selling The Australian Wine Annual (now in its ninth edition), More Thirst for Knowledge and Evans on Earth (a biography of Len Evans). Jeremy is a regular contributor to Gourmet Traveller’s Wine Magazine, The Australian Way (Qantas inflight), The Straits Times, Wine & Dine (both Singapore), OLN (UK), Drinks (USA) and a number of other publications. He is also a regular presence on ABC Melbourne Radio.
Jeremy is also in the process of developing some world-leading wine software for consumers, and has also begun to develop what he hopes will become a very significant wine list for The Point Restaurant, Albert Park.
Jeremy Oliver’s style is typically unambiguous and to the point. Because he is not associated with any wine producer or distributor, he believes he can say what he wants to… and does. He is also one of the only wine writers in Australia with a formal tertiary training in winemaking and viticulture. He has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from the University of Melbourne and studied winemaking at Roseworthy College, South Australia. He strongly believes that if you’re going to write critically about wine, the least you can do is to learn how to grow and make it.
Jeremy Oliver is actively involved in sport, mainly through his association with The Melbourne Cricket Club plus the 49ers, a social team largely comprising a group of winemakers and musicians who ought to know better. He plays regularly for the MCC’s XXIX Club and during 2001-2002 managed to dismiss former star Test batsman Dean Jones for a duck on the MCG, not that he’s making a big thing out of it! Jeremy is also the wine consultant to the MCC.
Jeremy still dreams of playing a golf course (any golf course) the way its architect intended and at the age of 44 his mood swings are still closely linked to the fortunes of the Essendon Football Club and the Australian Test Cricket team. His secret fantasy is still to commentate cricket for the BBC. He lives in Melbourne with Jennifer his wife, Benjamin his son, Georgia his dog, Bomber his cat, plus a large and expanding adoptive family of possums.”
From www.jeremyoliver.com