Parker and Galloni settle dispute

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and its former correspondent Antonio Galloni have settled their dispute out of court.

Galloni: ‘amicable’

Antonio Galloni told Decanter.com he could make no comment on the confidential settlement but he said the dispute had been resolved amicably.

On the erobertparker.com bulletin board, Robert Parker said, ‘We are pleased to announce that The Wine Advocate and [Galloni’s company] All Grapes Media have resolved all of our outstanding issues amicably, and The Wine Advocate has withdrawn its lawsuit against Mr Galloni and All Grapes Media.’

In March, the Wine Advocate announced it was suing its former California correspondent for breach of contract, fraud and defamation.

Galloni, who was contracted by the influential wine journal for a reported US$300,000 a year to cover California wines, resigned earlier this year after a majority share in the Wine Advocate was bought by a group of Singaporean investors.

The crux of the Wine Advocate’s suit was a report on Sonoma wines that Galloni was due to deliver, explaining to subscribers on his new website that he would not be able to do justice to the diversity of the region in time for the Wine Advocate’s February issue.

Parker said, ‘We expect that Antonio’s Sonoma report will appear in the April issue of The Wine Advocate and that Antonio’s Brunello reviews will be added to our data base sometime in May. We thank our subscribers for their patience during this period.’

Written by Adam Lechmere