Chateau owner loses court battle over Parker book October 25, 2007
Panos Kakaviatos and Oliver Styles
Bordeaux doyen Alain Raynaud has failed in his legal attempt to strike passages from the Robert Parker exposé, published in France today.
Raynaud, who heads up the Cercle de Rive Droite, had requested an injunction against the book Robert Parker: Anatomie d'un Mythe, from a Bordeaux court yesterday.
Today, the court in Libourne found in favour of the publishers of the book, Editions Scali, and its author, Hanna Agostini.
The case centred around the suggestion, reported by Agostini, that Parker was the godfather of Raynaud's daughter and that Raynaud had asked Parker to be a godfather in order to gain favour from the highly influential wine critic.
Raynaud told decanter.com that the court had found against him because he had not quashed reports at the time.
'All I wanted to do was strike the passages about my daughter,' he said. 'I gave proof to the court that my daughter's godfather is not Parker. She's now 12 years old. It's as if I'm accused of using my daughter. It's as if I'm being accused of prostituting a minor.'
Raynaud said he had read an advance copy of the book as a member of a French literary society.
For her part, Agostini said she had not read the court's ruling but that she was 'extremely satisfied' with the decision. She said she had sourced information from Elin McCoy's 2005 book on Parker, The Emperor of Wine, as well as an article by wine writer Nicolas Rabaudy in the magazine Trois Etoiles.
'When McCoy says in her book Parker said “he felt he couldn't refuse” [the offer to be godfather], how are you supposed to take it?' Agostini told decanter.com.
Raynaud said he was 'surprised' by the ruling and added that he was considering his options to taking the matter further.
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What a load of cobblers the wine world is turning into. Be very careful you don't turn into Hello!....
I really don't care who Robert Parker is godfather to or not – it would be great if we could concentrate on wine not celebrity gossip.
I don't care that Alain Raynaud is upset – it really is just so much froth. I don't care about this latest book about Parker. The upper stratosphere of the wine world impacts on a tiny percentage of the population. There are far more important things to get ourselves worked up about!
It's time the wine world got its feet back on the ground – wine is a fantastically enjoyable alcoholic drink – not an elixir of the gods!
Keep up the great wine based work please.
Andy Whiteman, The Harris Arms, Portgate, Devon, UK
I heard Ahmedinejad is picking up the courage to ask Bush to godfather his firstborn to secure that all-important positive review. It's fiscally sound, everybody is doing it.
Toby Bensimon, Adelaide, Australia
Hail to the Emperor, crowned by the crowd I suppose.
Well all this is a clear show of what goes on behind the scenes.
Too much weight is given to what a wine critic says about a particular wine.
This has become a money maker for the few wines that make it.
I have no idea how many wines a particular critic might be able to handle but each time I receive a mail shot from the most reputed firms or magazines there are adverts on the number of points obtained by a particular wine..some I have tried, and was disappointed!
Marketing to day has become a formidable weapon with great influence on all sectors of the market, but it should be the wine to sell itself not just the opinion of a few.....
With all due respect to all the wine critics, their comments should only be a guide to the consumers of what thier personal opinion about a wine is and they should not allow their opionions to be turned into money makers, as money tends to corrupt..history has taught us this too often!!!
Victor Bonello
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What a load of cobblers the wine world is turning into. Be very careful you don't turn into Hello!....
