Schandaal mondt uit in rechtszaak

Het schandaal rondom Jay Miller, het hulpje van wijngoeroe Parker, heeft nu de vorm van een juridisch steekspel aangenomen tussen de Onovertroffene zelf en de belangrijkste Amerikaanse wijnbloggers. Die kwamen erachter dat Miller zich in Murcia, Spanje had laten ‘kopen’ om daar wijnen te bespreken. De bedragen stonden in een onderschepte e-mail. Wijnwijs.eu heeft er eerder uitvoerig over bericht. Parker is al herhaaldelijk uitgedaagd opening van zaken te verschaffen over het gedrag van zijn discipel. Pas dezer dagen reageerde hij: er komt een rechtszaak tegen degenen die de beschuldigingen hebben geuit. Collega Charles Olken van The Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine noemt 8 redenen waarom Parker zich niets van die beschuldigingen aantrekt:

Eight Reasons Why Robert Parker Does Not Care

“-- Mr. Parker does not care what a bunch of writers with far less power, prestige, market presence, financial wherewithal and small weenies think of him. He is the big dog and folks like Jim Budd, Gray Blake, Tom Wark and Charlie Olken are just small tickles in his world and are best ignored. Joe Roberts (1WineDude) is right when he says that nothing we say will get under Mr. Parker’s skin. It will take CNN or 60 Minutes to expose the pay to play scandal that now attaches to the Wine Advocate.

-- To put it another way, other than Marvin Shanken, Mr. Parker is the biggest financial cat in the wine world. His money is secure. His way of life is secure. He is semi-retired because he has made a bundle and is still making a small fortune while letting others do his work. I wouldn’t say that I am jealous, but facts are facts.

-- Jay Miller, who seems to be at the heart of most of the bad news related to the Wine Advocate, must have compromising pictures of Mr. Parker. His overblown ratings are not worthy of attention, his financial arrangements with folks he is supposed to be judging independently and without bias are sleazy at best and unethical in some folks eyes. But Parker never seems to blink an eye. Some snoopy journalist is going to get to the bottom of the Parker-Miller symbiosis one of these days.

-- Parker knows that the newsletter business is not long for this world. He knows he pulled a rabbit out of a hat with his Bordeaux futures coverage three decades ago and shot to the top. He knows his writing is no better than Alan Meadows or Steve Tanzer or CGCW or any of the other independent newsletters. He is just bigger than the rest combined. But he knows that the slick paper magazines with their ability to sell advertising and thus to produce more pages for less money are increasingly going to take over.

-- And he also knows that the competition from a thousand wine bloggers, each of whom is out after his ass for even the slightest misstep, let alone the big missteps of recent years, along with the agglomeration sites like Snooth and Cellar Tracker are simply going to take over the independent end of the business. So, why care when he knows he is running a dying empire.

-- As long as folks like Miller and Parker’s handpicked replacement for himself, Antonio Galloni, can sell their influence for money, it is proof that the power of the Wine Advocate has not waned all that much. Bloggers like Alder Yarrow can write things like “. . . . erodes what little brand equity the Wine Advocate has remaining”, but Parker can barely even hear his or any of the small-time bloggers buzzing.

-- Mr. Parker has seen it all before, and he has beaten it all before. Go ask Alice Feiring. She skewered Parker big-time, earned a few minutes of fame and has dropped back into her niche. Go ask the late Bob Finigan whose newsletter was the big dog for imported wines until Parker came along. Finigan disagreed with Parker and got buried for his sins.

-- Jay Miller is Robert Parker’s love child”.