A new Parker book is always something to look forward to , and this one doesn't let you down.

Much better than previose edition concerning France.More info about particular wines of each producer.Champagne chapter could be more consistant.New world chapters didn't took much energy from auther too.The big solid thick book about american wines

Breathtakingly brief, in a good way, the majority of this guide is a line item list of offerings by vintage within winery, within region. Parker includes short notes on each winery, vintages as a whole, and points out relevant changes to wineries. He also provides some throwaway advice in the beginning of the book on storage, aging, and the like. The brief winery notes, typically a paragraph per, are worth the cost alone.

Parker's ratings and comments are useful to have even if you don't care for him, as they are firmly embedded in the wine criticism conversation at the top tier.

One has to ask if it's better to subscribe to Parker's online service, however. You will get all that's in this book and quite a bit more, plus it will be available to you with a mobile device at the store or restaurant. The cost, while more than this volume, is still relatively modest.

Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide, Robert M. Parker, Jr., Simon and Schuster, New York, 2008, 1513 pages, softback, $35. Four pounds of numbers. For $35 you get pages and pages filled with no specific wine descriptions, just lists and lists of the numerical score on the one hundred point scale. I don't get it. For years whenever the 100 point scale has been debated Parker has always responded that a reader should never just rely on the number he gives to a wine. The reader must also consider the written evaluation of the wine. Indeed he makes this same point in the introduction to this work. "However, it is also vital to consider the description of the wine's style, personality and potential." If it is "vital" why have all of these descriptions been stripped out this book? All that the author provides is the score and a window of drinkability. Other than some general comments about the winery as a whole, there are no specific comments about any of the wines. So a wine gets a score of 94 but will it go well with duck confit? No guidance is given at all. The reader deserves far more.


Given that Parker is the most influential wine critic in the world, I would have thought that before making derogatory remarks about a wine producer, he would have done extensive detailed research about the wines. Not so. Parker takes a swipe at the wines of Kosta-Browne stating that, "I find them somewhat superficial and overripe." (Pages 1194) Here is a winery that made its reputation on small lots of Sonoma County Pinot Noir. But Parker only lists scores on two pinots, both from the Central Coast, not Sonoma County. I thought that perhaps other Kosta Browne wines sourced from Sonoma grapes might have been tasted but dropped from this work because of space limitations. But when one goes to the Parker's web site, the only tasting notes are on these same two Central Coast pinots. Wouldn't you think a powerful critic is under an ethical obligation to taste all, or most, of the wines from a producer (especially their best wines) before publicly disparaging them?


To be fair, I really liked the section of the book that presents an annotated bibliography of wine books. Thankfully the books get more than just a naked numerical rating.
Parker afficionados will probably adore this work from their guru. I find it frustrating and missing key components. Not Recommended.

Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide Nº 7 is an astonishing compendium on wine written by the world's foremost wine critic in concert with his entire new Wine Advocate team. The Guide covers every wine region of any consequence on the planet, and includes a bit of history, a comprehensive survey of the wines of each area, discussion and ratings of all the relevant producers in each region, and poignant essays that cut to the heart of all the major contemporary issues of all of these regions. There is no other comparable work with the comprehensive coverage, the insightful commentary, and the ratings of thousands of wines from recent vintages that this seventh edition of Parker's popular guide provides.

By leaving out the detailed individual tasting notes of previous editions, probably to keep it at a slim 1513 pages, this book has reinvented the consumer wine guide yet again. It now begs to be read cover to cover (it really does, and I did), rather than be used simply to look up a favored wine or a favorite region, though it still works perfectly for the quick pre-purchase look-up: all the scores for wines of recent vintages are there. The detailed tasting notes can readily be found on Parker's website, though it requires a subscription (which is well worth it for everything else going on there nowadays), but curiously, they aren't even missed. The unencumbered flow of text and lists has completely re-energized the Guide. It facilitates the enthusiast's quest for quick answers about a wine or region, as well as quenching even the most insatiable thirst for all details vinous, including insider information about winemakers and their winemaking approaches, and a thorough, candid, and unbiased read of what's good, what's great, and what's not.

Parker's essays on all matters of wine in his forty page introduction, and David Schildknecht's extensive essays on Alsace, Austria, Burgundy, and Germany are worth the book's tariff alone. Then add the insights and critical assessments by the new members of his team that includes Dr. Jay Miller on Spain, Australia, South America, Washington, and Oregon; Antonio Galloni on Italy; Mark Squires on Portugal and the wines of Israel; the indefatigable and completely British Neal Martin on New Zealand and South Africa; and of course, the master himself on Bordeaux, the Rhone, and California wine, and the benchmark for wine writing has been raised to new heights. And I've left out many other regions covered. This wine buyer's guide not only meets the need for every wine buyer from the occasional purchaser to the obsessed enthusiast, it exceeds all previous expectations of the genre. And Parker invented the genre.