“The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr. and the Reign of American Taste”
(Ecco, $25.95)
Elin (pronounced “eelen”) McCoy has made a real gift to wine lovers and abstainers alike, in that people who know a lot about wine will drink it up; those who know a little will come away edified and those who know nothing are bound to find it a just plain good read.
McCoy, a respected wine writer for many years, has written about a man who dominates the world of wine criticsm. You find out how he carved his career in her unauthorized biography, “The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr. and the Reign of American Taste” (Ecco, $25.95).
With a level of detail (perhaps too much for some) that at times practically puts the reader in the room with Parker, we meet the man and his resolve, driven by an ego that occasionally falls down and goes boom – as in the time Parker and his publisher were sued for implying a French vintner kept its best wines in France.
Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide is so influential that some have been known to cease drinking a wine they once loved simply because Parker lowballed his double-digit rating of it. In the end, the reader gets to decide whether Parker is a demi-god or demonic.
– Ellen Sweets
