July 24 2006
The Emperor of Wine by Elin McCoy, published in the summerof ’05, will be released in paperback on August 1, 2006.
Ijust finished reading the hard cover and felt, frankly, a bit unsatisfied. To borrow a wine cliché, it finished“short.” As biographies go, authorizedor unauthorized, this book largely comes up empty; it’s neither deeplypathologic about its subject or sweeping enough to provide context.
Instead,it plays a certain middle ground that offers little in the way of insight, butprovides enough detail to play successfully as a straight narrative.
Unfortunately,however, I’m not looking for scandalous tabloid-quality information, but rathersome insight into the pathos that makes the man or information that provokesadditional questions and a quest for more information on the ethos.
TheEmperor of Wine does neither.
Somemay argue that the book answers all open questions, like a tidy movie might,but I unabashedly would argue that the book didn’t raise enough questions.
InMcCoy’s treatment, we get a well-worn repeating of Parker’s formative years andsome broad brush strokes about his personality—he can be mercurial andpetulant, but has high integrity and he occasionally is a subtle if noteffective self-promoter—always taking the moral high road yet suffering the occasional lapse in judgment.
Heand Marv Shanken from the Wine Spectator don’t pal around, either—havingassumed the position respectively of benign ignorance of each other’s presence.
But,never do we get a penetrating peer into the man that has shaped the wineindustry for the last 20 + years. Theauthor, taking a decidedly reporter-like approach leaves judgments on Parker,his influence, and his character to the reader. A judicious choice if I felt like I had all the evidence. The only re-occurring theme the authorcircles back to is Parker’s unwavering, undeniable belief in the infallibilityof his reviews—his palate.
Perhapsthat’s McCoy’s way of explaining the simmering monomania that goes largelyunchecked and un-reviewed in the book—Parker never second-guesses himself andhe never admits to being wrong. Though,he is thin-skinned and bristles at criticism of his own influence, deferringhis power to that of a simple consumer advocate.
MichaelJordan didn’t become the greatest basketball player to ever play the game bybeing passive or relenting and, likely neither did Parker.
And,like a superstar, critics and other experts have systematically tried todiscredit him and chip away at his veneer while fans fawned at hispreternatural talents and omnipresential gifted palate.
Yet,mostly, these topics are treated to a two-dimensional rendering that,ultimately, never fleshes out the man to a level of intimacy that fostersendearment, or vitriol—just a safe middle of the road rendering of a man forwhich the final sentence claims:
“Therewill never be another emperor of wine.”
Hemight as well be the Jay Leno of wine, if you believe McCoy. In lieu of the book, this 20 page article onParker from Atlantic Monthly essentially acts as a Cliffs Note to the book, saving both time and money—a buying characteristic wine or otherwise that Parker would endorse.
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