Robert McDowell Parker Jr. was born on 23 July 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The son of a construction equipment salesman, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in history, but was not satisfied with his degree in law from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1973.

Even before he had finished his law degree, he visited Alsace (France) in 1967 to visit his friend Patricia (who would become his wife Patricia Parker). It was on this visit to France that he discovered his passion for wine, which soon became his obsession.

Although from 1973 he worked as a lawyer for more than 10 years for the Baltimore bank Farm Credit, in the early 1970s he was already thinking about writing his own wine guide. It was in 1978 that he began publishing his guide, "The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate"

Ethics as a decisive factor

One of the factors that led him to create his publication was when Parker recognised that much of what was written about wine at the time was conditioned by the "financial agendas" of those who wrote about wine at the time.

Robert Parker wanted to create a publication that was independent of funding from producers and merchants and that was financed 100 per cent by the subscribers who read it. Wine Advocate claims that it remains so to this day.

Robert Parker and the Wine Advocate: The importance of Vintage 1982

It was in 1979 that Robert Parker's magazine was renamed "The Wine Advocate". But it was in 1983, when he reviewed the 1982 Bordeaux vintage, that his reputation grew decisively. This critic, unlike other reputable critics of the time, when tasting the wines in barrel, stated that this would be a great vintage and that it would have a great capacity to evolve in bottle. When it was recognised that Parker was right about the vintage, its reputation soared and so did the number of subscribers. This is what allowed him to leave his law practice in 1984 and devote himself exclusively to wine.

The transformation of Wine Advocate to what it is today

It was back in 2012 that the majority of Wine Advocate's shares were sold to a Singaporean investment group. At this point, profound changes were made. It became exclusively digital, Robert Parker was no longer Editor-in-Chief but Lisa-Perroti-Brown, and a second office was opened in Singapore.

In 2019, at the age of 71, Robert Parker retired with the sale of all his shares to the Michelin Guide Group.

Today the magazine is called Robert Parker Wine Advocate or just Robert Parker. When people say today that Robert Parker has awarded a certain score, they are not referring to the critic, but to this publication.

How the Robert Parker Wine Advocate tastes wines

Most wine tastings are conducted in a professional room, with the temperature of the room and the bottle, light, type of glass and an odour-free environment. Tastings are conducted in a NON-BLIND manner, but in comparison with other wines from the same region, the same variety or the same year.

The exception to this type of tasting are the tastings carried out annually by the team's critics on their visits to producers in the major regions, in order to guarantee a deeper knowledge of the region and what happened in that vintage.

The reason the tastings are not blind (according to the Wine Advocate) is to be able to cross-reference the knowledge that they already have of each of the producers and wines and to be more precise with regard to the evolution of the wine in the bottle.

Robert Parker's 100-point scale and its interpretation.

One of the reasons for Robert Parker's growing influence was also his use/creation of the 100-point scale. Inspired by North American school grades, the scale ranges from 50 to 100 points, depending on the wine's colour and appearance, aroma/bouquet, taste and finish and finally its overall quality and ageing potential.

Its simplicity and flexibility (with 50 possible different scores) has led to it being adopted by other publications.

The Robert Parker Wine Advocate says that they are very demanding when it comes to wines and the scores they give. These should only be seen as a complement to the tasting notes which, they claim, are the main way of communicating the qualities of a wine tasted.

The only Portuguese wine awarded 100 points by Robert Parker Jr. himself was Taylors Vintage 1992. In addition, 8 other wines have been awarded top marks by the Robert Parker Wine Advocate (but by critics other than Robert Parker Jr.).

As for non-fortified wines, the highest-scoring wines have 98 points and are Curriculum Vitae 2016 and Quinta do Crasto Maria Teresa 2019.

THE MEANING:
96-100: An extraordinary wine with a deep and complex character, displaying all the attributes expected of a Classic wine of this variety.
90-95: An unusual wine with exceptional complexity and character. In short, they are fantastic wines
80-89: Just above Average to Very Good. A wine that shows varying degrees of finesse, flavour and character without any noticeable flaws.
70-79: An "average" wine that doesn't stand out, despite having no serious faults. In essence a simple, innocuous wine.
60-69: A wine below average, with noticeable flaws such as excess acidity and/or tannins, lack of flavour or possible bad aromas or flavours 
50-59: An unacceptable wine

Meaning of the symbols in the scores

(95-97) A bracket indicates a wine tasted in Barrel
95+ A plus at the end of the score means that the wine is expected to evolve well and could secure an even higher score
? UA question mark means that the wine should be tasted more often in order to get a "safer" final score, either because the bottle tasted was faulty or because the wine's state of evolution is still very much unknown.

World Top Wines Recommendation About Robert Parker Wine Advocate

This is the publication to take into account when you want to invest, as it is the most influential publication on wine prices in international terms. For great international wines, a very high score such as 98 or 99 has a positive effect on their price, but only 100 points has guaranteed very good value.

In Portugal, Port wines follow the international trend, but in still wines a 98 already means a significant increase in value (as happened with C.V. 2016).

The critic responsible for Portugal is Mark Squires, who has a reputation for being conservative in the scores he gives, having never given scores higher than 98 except for fortified wines, despite being the critic responsible for evaluating wines from Portugal, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Eastern Europe and the East Coast of the USA and having already exceeded 22,000 tasting notes in this publication.

Although RP90 may seem like a not-so-good score, it's not. Especially under the baton of Mark Squires. So keep that in mind when choosing a wine. An RP90 wine for €10 will tend to be an excellent buy.

Respect for copyright

World Top Wines has a valid Commercial Subscription to RobertParker.com, which gives it legitimate permission to use the tasting notes, scores and official point labels to promote its wines. When a wine is scored several times, we favour the use of the most recent review.
For more information visit https://www.robertparker.com/