Hanna Agostini, Robert Parker's one-time representative in Bordeaux, is publishing an unauthorised – and by all accounts highly inflammatory – biography of the world-famous critic.
Publicity for Robert Parker: Anatomie d'un Mythe, due out in French on October 25 from Editions Scali, describes it as 'the antithesis of an authorised biography'.
Interviewing Agostini on the book, local Bordeaux newspaper Sud Ouest refers to alleged 'errors in Parker's prose' as detailed by the biography.
News of the book has already ignited passions on the bulletin board of erobertparker.com.
'Mme Agostini is not the first "unknown" person that attacks RP to get her 5 minutes of fame, neither will be the last one,' is one of the more temperate comments.
Agostini was a long-time collaborator of Parker's in the region, co-ordinating his wine tastings and translating his work into French, until she faced accusations in 2002 of using his name to get lucrative consulting projects.
In a separate interview with decanter.com, Agostini referred to 'contradictions' in Parker's writings and insisted, 'There is no personal opinion in the book.'
Specific accusations at the time included Agostini allegedly using the letterhead of Parker's journal the Wine Advocate to bill Belgian drinks company, the Geens Group, for substantial sums of money. Agostini, who does not deny consulting for the company, claimed the letter-headed paper had been stolen from her house, and that any consulting she did was entirely under her own name.
Although Parker stood by Agostini, they parted company in 2003. It was after this that Agostini began writing her book.
Review copies were unavailable at the time of going to press.
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After reading the 5 pages inside a weekly french magazine, MARIANNE, we have there obviously a revenge book, written with vitriol, against what is a success that nobody can deny.
We are specialist in France of this kind of reaction and we have words for that : Lèche, lâche, lynche. Proudness in Bordeaux is very flexible, very…
François Mauss, Luxembourg
What primal aspect in our nature is it that causes some to feel better about themselves when they can trample on associates? What is it that lives inside our competitive nature to even be the "one" who needs to go further and intitiate the degradation to raise our light?
Robert Parker is merely a man who is passionate about wine. Ambitious? - of course. For those of us who know him, he absolutely appears to be honorable and he makes a constant effort to be above board in his entire approach to his work.
Is he really to blame for the power and influence of his words? He is not the one who has asked us to acknowledge his perfection. 'Mme Agostini had the pleasure of working along side Mr. Parker and in doing so realized he is simply human. Her disappointment at the discovery of this fact and the opportunity to trample on the man and his work would lead to her fame was obviously too tempting for her to resist.
We live in a time and society that needs our hero's as much as we delight in destroying those same who we discover are merely human. I imagine if you are passionate about wine and want to learn about Mr. Parker you can read any of his books. You will learn about wine and Mr. Parker at the same time.
If you are feeling "less-than" in your own life and wish to lift yourself up, you may want to read Mme Agostini's work and see if that makes you feel better about yourself. If that does not work, open a bottle of really fine wine, that should do the trick. If neither activity does the trick, you may want to consider a new career. It does appear in the coming decade we will be needing a lot of bombardiers.
William Gladstone, William Gladstone Fine Wine Imports
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After reading the 5 pages inside a weekly french magazine, MARIANNE, we have there obviously a revenge book, written with vitriol, against what is a success that nobody can deny.
