The Emperor of Wine, a biography of Robert Parker by journalist Elin McCoy, is published this month in the US and will be out early next year in the UK. Parker tends to divide wine lovers into passionate acolytes and equally blinkered nay-sayers, so my guess is that this laudably balanced account will truly satisfy few of its readers but most will learn something from it. (Like many of my, and Parker’s, generation, I found the bit that stuck in my mind was the passing reference to his trip to Morocco to score some really good hash.)
The passages...