Will Galloni

I first heard about it a few weeks ago from Francois Mausse, the inventor of the Grand jury Europeènne and good friend of Antonio Galloni. ''You'll see, in the end Parker will give The Wine Advocate to him''. Now similar rumors are mounting. Enologists, producers, everyone is speculating over the eventual handing over of editorial control and perhaps the ownership (but it may be too early for this) of the most influential international publication on wine in the world.
Should this turn out to be true it would be a true revolution, much more so than my exit from Gambero Rosso and the Rome chapter of AIS, much more than when James Suckling left The Wine Spectator. This because it would be a real watershed. And this not only because Parker, who is well into his 70s, is now considered to be tired and bored, something which is more than understandable after more than 10,000 tastings a year for over three decades. It would be revolutionary because of the different approaches Parker and Galloni, despite the great respect and esteem they have for each other, have in their vision of wine in general.

Robert Parker, who has never made it a secret that his personal tastes influence his wine reviews, has in one way or another influenced an era. He began by putting into question the 'totem' of the 1855 classification of Bordeaux Grand Crus, tasting and evaluating those wines year after year and sometimes overturning their 'historic' values. He then drew attention to a zone which until a few decades ago was considered minor in respect to those of the classic Haut Medoc. I am referring to Saint-Emilion and above all Pomerol, an area where Merlot is more widespread than Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the most used vine in Haut Medoc. He also launched into hyper-space tiny wineries like Valandraud or Le Pin or wine experts like Michel Rolland. Parker then went on to analyze American wines with extraordinary precision. In particular those from the Napa Valley but also from other parts of California as well as Oregon and Washington State. Labels like those from the wineries of Bill Harlan, of Screaming Eagle, Araujo Eisele Vineyard, Grace Family or winemakers like Tony Soter, Heidi Barrett, Helen Turley and Steve Kistler who gained world notoriety thanks to Parker. He then with great passion took up the cause of the Rhone Valley in France, raising to the altar wines like Guigal and Chapoutier. Then there was the Barossa Valley in Australia, with special attention paid to the wines of Torbreck. This was all done with consistency, sometimes favoring wines which were more bold than elegant, but also easier to evolve over the medium term. This was a way to interpret aging and maturity in a more modern sense than in the past. Even his approach to Italian wines was a mix of intelligent traditional producers, like Bruno Giacosa, first Giovanni and later Roberto Conterno, Vase Basse, Giuseppe Quintarelli, and innovative ones like Angelo Gaja, first of all, then Riccardo Cotarella, Elio Altare, Giorgio Rivetti, Giacomo Neri and Romano Dal Forno, just to name those who were closest to his heart.

Galloni, on the other hand, comes from a different reality and vision of the world. He ran a splendid newsletter named Piedmont Report, demonstrating a great interest above all for Langhe wines made using more or less traditional styles. Then he got involved with Burgundy wines and, as far as I could figure out, showed more interest in elegant wines, even if they were a little rustic, which were more influenced by the land they were produced in than the methods used. By doing this he demonstrated his 'Italian' or 'Latin' soul, where as Parker's was much more Anglo-American.
What should we expect in the event the rumors prove to be true? Probably a change of course, one which has already been clear in the latest issues of The Wine Advocate, those in which Galloni's editorial role has become more evident. This is sure to please many people but will probably have as a consequence a change in the 'target' in regard to readers, those who have become accustom to expecting a 'Parkeresque' vision of wine, which given the success of the publication means that they shared his point of view. In Italy, and perhaps in France, some may be worried. Above all those whose vision is not very farsighted considering that critics do not last forever. But then neither do fads.