Update: Background to the Robert Parker-Pancho Campo-Jay Miller-Kevin Zraly Wine Futures Rioja Scandal 2009

* * * * *
by Gerry Dawes ©2009

First Published October 19, 2009

On Sept. 4th, 2009:, Decanter published Arrest warrant posted for Spanish Wine Academy director co-authored by investigative reporter, Jim Budd, and Decanter editor, Adam Lechmere. 

And on October 2, Decanter published Pancho Campo resigns to 'focus on clearing name', this time also signed by Adam Lechmere and Jim Budd:

"Pancho Campo MW has stepped down as director of the Wine Future Rioja conference next month and resigned as president of the Spanish Wine Academy.

Kevin Zraly of New York's Windows on the World wine school, and a highly respected wine critic and writer, has taken over as chair of the conference, at which Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson MW, and Decanter's consultant editor Steven Spurrier are due to appear.

Campo's brother-in-law Rony Bacqué will replace him as president of the academy.

The beleagured Campo has been embroiled in a complex battle with authorities in Dubai for the last few weeks, after a Madrid journalist came across a type of arrest warrant or 'location notice' for him on the Interpol website.

The warrant relates to a 2002 complaint brought by former business partner Jackie Wartanian to do with a fee paid to singer Enrique Iglesias. At the time Campo ran a sports and music promotion company in Dubai.

It now appears that in June 2003 in Dubai Campo was found guilty in absentia of breach of trust and given a one-year custodial sentence followed by deportation."

Jim Budd, on his Jim's Loire weblog, has detailed the chronology of the  Campo affair under Pancho Campo, MW: the essence.

Campo was pushed to resign as Director of WineFuture-Rioja 2009 because he is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant and he said he "wanted to concentrate on clearing my name."  

Campo also resigned, on paper at least, as President of The Wine Academy in early October (See the Time Line on this case by Jim Budd, the Decanter magazine writer who finally broke the story with the help of  several contributors in Spain, in the U.S. and in the Caribbean).  Campo named his brother-in-law, Rony Bacqué, as President of The Wine Academy of Spain and his wife, Melissa, is still one of the directors.

On October 1, Kevin Zraly was named to succeed Pancho Campo, President of The Wine Academy of Spain, as "Technical Director" of WineFuture Rioja 2009 to be held in mid-November in Logroño (La Rioja), Spain.Many, including journalists, winemakers and political figures in La Rioja, believe that Kevin Zraly, who lives two hours northwest of New York City and does not speak Spanish, is un hombre de paja, "a straw man," or figurehead who will allow Pancho Campo to continue to direct the conference behind the scenes.

Campo's The Wine Academy of Spain is still the organizer of the event and still stands to profit from the revenues.  On the Wine Academy website, a statement says that WineFuture-Rioja 2009 is the propiedad (property) of The Wine Academy.  Some reports emanating from La Rioja place The Wine Academy's gross profit on the WineFuture Rioja 2009 conference at 1,000,000 Euros (approximately $1,500,000) and others have placed Robert Parker's fee for appearing at the conference at 100,000 Euros ($150,000).

The WineFuture-Rioja 2009 conference is being underwritten by the government of La Rioja--they are also providing the venue for the conference, Riojaforum, free-of-charge--and by several wineries and other entities, including the very recent addition of the government of Aragón as a sponsor.  The event is also very strongly supported by the Rioja Consejo Regulador (Regulatory Council), with whom Kevin Zraly's wife, Ana Fabiano, signed on earlier this year to promote Rioja wines in the United States.

And, notably, WineFuture-Rioja 2009 is also supported by a number of periodicals, specialized wine publications and websites, all of which to date have been silent (at least to the knowledge of several writers following this story) for almost two months about what has come to be known as "The Pancho Campo affair."

Aragón, the Spanish comunidad (group of provinces) neighboring La Rioja, who signed on as a sponsor after the Pancho Campo Interpol affair broke in Decanter magazine, seemingly stands to gain more than La Rioja from WineFutures-Rioja 2009. Aragón promotes its wine regions and its wines under as the "El Reino de La Garnacha" banner. Aragonés wines from Garnacha, a native Spanish grape, produces big, rich, soft, smooth wines, albeit with alcohol levels that seldom drop below 14.5% (and are often even more potent), wines which are known to be favored by Robert M. Parker, Jr. and Dr. Jay Miller of The Wine Advocate.

The reason that Aragón stands to benefit as much or more than La Rioja, the main underwriting region, is because the "cata magistral," the tasting with the maestro, at WineFuture-Rioja 2009 will be conducted by Robert Parker and was originally planned to include nothing but "Grenache-based" wines (Garnacha is a native Spanish grape and should always be referred to by its Spanish spelling).  Only five Spanish wines are included in this tasting, but three of them come from Aragón and none of them from La Rioja, which is famous for its Tempranillo-based wines.  The rest of the wines announced for the tasting come from France, Australia or California.

After mounting pressure from local press and Rioja politicos, plus complaints from many Rioja wineries, shortly before he "resigned," Pancho Campo came up with the "surprise" addition of two Rioja wines, a 1945 historical wine from Marqués de Riscal, one of the conference sponsors, and, supposedly, a Contador 2007, neither of which contains Garnacha.

The Marqués de Riscal 1945, which contains 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Tempranillo, is one of the greatest wines ever made in all of Europe, but it is now 64 years old and certainly does not speak for the Rioja of today, in fact, many forces in Spain, including most of Madrid's wine press corps, have spent considerable ink trying to paint La Rioja's historical wines as dinosaurs.

The latest rumor about the Contador, a wine given 100 points by Parker's Spanish wine reviewer, Jay Miller, is that there is not enough of the 2007 remaining to serve at the tasting, so it will have to be replaced.  Contador, like two of the wines from Aragón, are wines that  Jorge Ordoñez, Robert Parker's most favored Spanish importer,  brings into the United States. That makes the score in the Parker tasting:  Aragón 3, Jorge Ordoñez  3, La Rioja 2!

According to Campo, he had this "surprise" planned all along although he did not reveal his "little homage to La Rioja" until his ass was already in the big-time vise grip and "the surprise" was too little, too late. Campo, who then went on to describe has gesture as a "little homage" to Rioja benefactors infuriated many Riojanos, including politicians such as Miguel González de Legarra, spokesman for the minority Partido Riojano. González has written several long editorials recently denouncing the whole WineFuture-Rioja 2009 process and focusing in the fact that La Rioja is underwriting the conference, which is basically the Pancho Campo Wine Academy's own profit-generating business venture.

In one editorial, González wrote, (In spite of the Rioja wine powers-that-be contracting someone sought by Interpol to run the conference. . .) "Neverthless, I consider the programming of Wine Future Rioja 2009 the most scandalous, "an event that is paid for by Riojan grape growers and wineries," there has been no inclusion of the wines from the Rioja D.O."

"It was indicated that the main event of the congress is a tasting led by the renowned media guru, Robert Parker, that is dedicated to Garnacha, when Rioja wines are known for the Tempranillo variety, but they are going to taste 18 wines, of which only five are Spanish, all of the them from Cataluña y Aragón."

In the opinion of González, "the situation is a bloody farce," especially when one takes into consideration that "the Rioja Regulatory Council lied when they now say that they had always planned to have two Rioja wines" (both put belatedly into Parker's Garnacha tasting, where they are totally out of place). 

González continued, "The program has been finalized for months and until yesterday no one mentioned two Rioja wines, y besides, Tempranillos, which are not part of the tasting (of Garnachas), and are not comparable to the rest of the wines (in the tasting); they are jumping in and trying to fix what is not fixable, nor justifiable."

The Pancho Campo affair has created an ever widening whirlpool of crosscurrents involving high-powered wine interests in Spain and abroad, a number of well-placed Spanish wine and food figures, importers of Spanish wines to the United States on Robert Parker's most favored list; and politicians, not only in La Rioja, but in Sherry country as well, where Campo was selected to run the "noble" desserts and fortified wine fair, Vinoble, and an uproar  ensued that  brought the woman mayor of Jerez de la Frontera under fire  from opposing politicians and is still ongoing.

Even the King of Spain, Don Juan Carlos I, has been caught up in these swirling waters, since it has been reported that he was influenced by high-placed people known to have had business dealings with Pancho Campo to offer dinner to Robert Parker at his official residence, La Zarzuela Palace, just outside Madrid.  However according to Victor de la Serna, Deputy Director of the newspaper, El Mundo, in a post on the elmundovino.com website's Sobremesa section, Parker is only receiving a "brief audience" on the afternoon of November 10, though there have been many reports of a lunch or a dinner.  On October 7, De la Serna wrote on the Sobremesa board, "Ni hay ni nunca hubo cena de Parker con el Rey. (There is not, nor was there ever a Parker dinner with the King.)"

Some of these same "enchufados," the people wired into the Royal House of Spain, had a powwow  after they heard that Campo had resigned, and told Campo that he would not be permitted to attend the Parker audience (lunch/dinner?) with the King.  Some of the journalists investigating this story have it on good authority that at least one of the Campo cohorts with connections to the King of Spain has known about the Interpol arrest order for several months.

Add to this potent mix, the collusion of Spanish wine journalists* who  have been silent almost to the person, along with the attempted stifling of the independent press,  including reports of intimidation and suppression through veiled threats by Pancho Campo's lawyers and, from some reports,  offers of perks that could be interpreted (and were) by some specific sources as attempts at bribing them into silence.** This worked for awhile until a couple of  journalists in Spain, armed with overwhelming evidence, were finally able to file some stories, after nearly two months of being muzzled. (The journalists' jobs may be at risk in a game where money and the illusion of money overrules principle.)

*The list of 29 media outlets and organizations signed on to WineFuture-Rioja 2009 as "Media Partners" is revealing and explains why so little (almost nothing) has been written in the wine press about the Campo affair.  The list now totals 30 with the addition to The International Federation of Wine Journalists (IFWJ) and Associación Española de Periodistas del Vino (AEPEV), who just signed on (see below).

**On October 13, nearly two weeks after Pancho Campo “resigned” as Director of WineFuture-Rioja 2009, The International Federation of Wine Journalists and its Spanish Chapter, the Associación Española de Periodistas del Vino (Spanish Association of Wine Writers) gave their support and backing to the event, which is still being run by Campo’s Wine Academy. According to María Isabel Mijares, Vice President of IFWJ and President of AEPEV, “All members of this Association can attend this congress, enjoy the conferences and round tables that are offered on the program, as well as cover the event for their respective media outlets, thanks to a collaboration agreement that has been reached.”  Mijares, as an official in both these organizations, has confirmed her personal support and underscored that she will be attending WineFuture-Rioja 2009.

So, into this maelstrom steps Kevin Zraly and this is where Gerry Dawes and Gerry Dawes's Spain comes in, since the aforementioned "unnamed American journalist" warned by Pancho Campo's lawyer was me, Gerry Dawes*, writer of this blog; contributor for decades to numerous publications on Spanish wine, food and travel; and recipient of the Premio Nacional de Gastronómía Marqués de Busianos award for writing and lecturing about the quality of Spanish gastronomy over many years.

On August 31, 2009, this writer had an extensive phone call (see below) with Kevin Zraly, during which I forwarded a third-party e-mail (a scanned copy  is available) with information about the Pancho Campo case to Zraly. Two days later, on September 2, as described below, I received a phone call threatening various actions from someone saying he was Alfonso Martínez, Pancho Campo's lawyer. This was followed by an e-mail by Martínez to the same third party e-mail address requesting a meeting with me the following week in New York.  The Decanter article was published on Sept. 4.  So far, I  heard from nothing more from Martínez.

As with America's Watergate, the attempted cover-up may be worse than the crime, in this case the crime for which Pancho Campo is the perpetrator according to Interpol and from news reports in Dubai, Decanter magazine and other periodicals.  By attempting to silence journalists and by having his lawyer "warn" this writer, in particular, Campo's offenses against freedom of speech and the collusion of the Spanish press and of well-known wine and media figures, both Spanish and American, and  have become the real story in this ongoing saga.

But, for the sake of fairness, let me offer these ringing video endorsements--from Jancis Robinson, Robin Kelly O'Conner of Sherry Lehmann and Ana Fabiano, Kevin Zraly's wife and a contracted promoter of Rioja wines, and wine book author John Radford--of Pancho Campo, his Wine Academy and the wines from wineries such as Gonzalez Byass (where Campo signing a barrel is a major video event, putting him in the same league as King Juan Carlos I, Orson Welles and Stephen Spielberg), Freixenet and the regions of Rioja, Rias Baixas, Jerez and Jumilla who support his efforts, plus a really quite glowing article about Kevin Zraly in The New York Times (the banner My Dubai Diary advertisement running next to the article on Zraly has nothing to do with him, but it has really quite a prescient, you-can't make-this-stuff-up irony to it.)

About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

El Silencio de los Corderos, The Silence of the Lambs, Musings by Alberto Gil, A Journalist from La Rioja Who Reported on the 2009 Pancho Campo-Interpol and Robert Parker WineFuture Rioja Controversy

* * * * *

Veteran Riojan journalists Alberto Gil (l) and Casimiro Somalo (r) of http://larioja.com at a friendly 
gathering of several wine lovers at the popular traditional restaurant, El Lagar, in Logroño, La Rioja. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Some people in Spain suspect that Alberto Gil, a veteran journalist in La Rioja may have been the Deep Throat source of information about Pancho Campo before the highly controversial WineFuture Rioja 2009 event.  The reports from larioja.com and investigations by Alberto Gil led to Jim Budd of Jim's Loire, a British investigative wine journalist to take an interest in the Pancho Campo - Robert M. Parker, Jr. connection.  

Gil's direct involvement in investigating Campo and the Interpol warrant caused Campo to resign under pressure (most agreed in name only)  before the WineFuture Rioja 2009 event and appoint American Kevin Zraly as his successor as Director of the event (Zraly was considered Pancho Campo's "straw man" for the event by many observers.)  Nonetheless, Campo showed up to run the event, speak at the event, sit on panels and participate in formal wine tastings. 

Robert M. Parker, Jr. of The Wine Advocate was paid a purported 100,000 Euros for appearing at WineFuture Rioja.  During the event, at his request a master tasting was planned using Garnacha-based wines, all of which came from outside La Rioja, including several from neighboring Aragón.  This scheduled tasting, as more people became aware of it, caused such a row that even politicians from La Rioja got involved and the tasting was done with the addition of the very rare bodega library wine, Marqués de Riscal 1947, and Contador, a modern Rioja wine with no Garnacha, both of which were belatedly put into the tasting in an attempt to appease increasingly vociferous critics. 

As it turned out, in that WineFuture Rioja 2009 Garnacha tasting with Robert M. Parker, Jr., Parker's friend, Spaniard Jorge Ordoñez*, who imports Spanish wines into the United States under his Jorge Ordoñez - Fine Estates From Spain label, had three wines in the tasting while the Comunidad de La Rioja and the La Rioja D.O., sponsors of the event, had just two.  

The score was like a soccer match: Ordoñez 3, La Rioja 2.  The irony was not lost on journalists like Alberto Gil, who love their wine region and chafed under seeing La Rioja get the short end of the stick in this tasting.

(*For many years Ordoñez has enjoyed an especially close relationship with Parker.  Jay Miller's first trip to Spain as Parker's Spain "expert" taster was with Ordoñez, a trip** that was purportedly quite a bit more lavish than the one Miller took with Ordoñez when Miller was working as a partner in a Baltimore retail.) 

(**From Robert M. Parker Jr.'s Ethical Standards [Copied directly from www.erobertparker.com]
"In order to pursue this independence effectively, it is imperative that I keep a distance from the trade. While this may be misinterpreted as aloofness, such independence guarantees hard hitting, candid, and uninfluenced commentary. . .

. . . The same standards of tasting free of external influence as well as unbiased reviews I have followed for 30+ years are expected from all independent wine critics working on assignments for The Wine Advocate or eRobertParker.com. . .
 
. . . All writers hired as independent contractors must certify that they maintain rigid standards of independence and integrity, writing about what is in the bottle, free of external pressure. . .
 
. . . I have kept the wine trade at arm’s length over the last three plus decades, and I realize that as rigorously high as my own particular standards are, it is neither possible nor realistic to expect such standards with the independent wine critics who work for me. . .) 

The following is Alberto Gil's latest take on the situation in an article posted on larioja.com.  

(I have tweaked the Google translation.  I apologize in advance for any quirks.)

El silencio de los corderos
(The Silence of the Lambs***)

by Alberto Gil, larioja.com

14 December 2011

(***The title refers the nearly universal silence of the Spanish press that during the 2009 Pancho Campo-Interpol-WineFuture Rioja controversy, during which it was claimed that many journalists were threatened with legal action, a claim now confirmed by some who are now speaking out and writing about the current so-called Murcia-Jumilla gate controversy.)

"I remember two issues in my professional career in which journalistic passion carried me to extremes. One of them is known, (it was) a false accusation filed in court for alleged assault on the mother of the clan by the family of a former woman vice president of the government of La Rioja, Arancha Vallejo, because of (my) reporting on the illegal uprooting of a vineyard. (GD: Albert Gil was proved innocent of what was a trumped up charge against a journalist for reporting on illegal activities.)

The other was the case with Pancho Campo, who landed in Logroño with WineFuture Rioja 2009, with full institutional support and (with support) from major wineries that had been placed on the organizing committee.  Pancho Campo enticed to some of the top wine experts on earth to Logroño, for an event that initially was supposed to take place in Jerez, but changed course at the last minute because of money considerations.  Among them was Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate), who had never before shown interest in wines of this country.

Campo had been convicted in absentia (he “cut out” before trial) and was sentenced to a year in prison in UAE (The United Arab Emirates) in 2003 for allegedly swindling a million dollars (reportedly €650,000) from his ex-partner as a music concert promoter and was being sought by Interpol.  When we asked for explanations about this fact, months before WineFuture Rioja, Campo endlessly lied to the organization, but WineFuture Rioja went on anyway and eventually resulted in the embarrassing awarding of the the (Spanish) Medal of Merit to Robert Parker.

Pancho, whose company had been previously convicted for non-payment for a 'festival' in Barcelona, always maintained in Rioja that his problem with Interpol was the result of an alleged plot against him that had been concocted through the extraordinary influence and money of his former partner in Dubai, Jackie Wartanian.  During several months (of investigating) I never met anyone able to confirm this far-fetched story. The journalist Jim Budd, in Decanter, published on September 4, 2009 the arrest warrant from Interpol against Campo, after which not one national or regional publication paid attention to this news.

After the explosion in Decanter, the pressure on Pancho Campo--police sources confirmed to me personally that Campo, despite what he had claimed, had been rescued from extradition to United Arab Emirates by an agreement with the Spanish Council of Ministers in 2008 and was fully aware of the facts of the (real) charges against him--was too much and he was forced to resign from the Wine Future (as Director of the event).

Just days before the (WineFuture Rioja) event, after a private dinner, which I attended, he was asked to resign after failing to prove, as he had assured the Rioja officials who had made him their spokesman he could, that he had never been arrested, or detained, in Spain because of  the international United Arab Emirates arrest warrant.  And he also claimed that he never knew anything about the case (in Dubai) until just a few months before, when the reality is that he had fled the United Arab Emirates in 2003 to to avoid prosecution. Namely, the whole string of lies-- which also included the use of veiled threats of the best and most prestigious law firms--with which (Campo) sustained his claim of an alleged plot (in Dubai) collapsed.

Pancho, at least then, could count on powerful "godfather-like"figures such as the President of the Spanish Academy of Gastronomy, Rafael Anson, among others, and the complicit attitude of the Spanish and international wine press, which, even though now the fire had been fueled, turned a deaf ear on WineFuture Rioja.

Now, Jim Budd (Jim’s Loire), as he did in September of 2009, has returned to uncover another scandal. Campo, through his The Wine Academy company, has been charging thousands of dollars to bring Robert Parker’s (now former) critic for Spanish wines, Jay Miller, to give lectures at different Spanish denominations of origin events, a business that is difficult to explain about a person who assesses and rates Spanish wines for the most influential publication of the wine world, precisely, one that preaches independence (free of outside influences).

The Wine Advocate has fired Jay Miller (GD note: the official line is that he “retired,” something they are now saying has been in the works since January.)  Now, the British wine writer Neal Martin has replaced Miller as the Wine Advocate’s Spanish wine taster.  Martin, until now responsible for South Africa, New Zealand and Sauternes, who in 2006 certainly said that he was neither interested or did he know anything about Spanish wines.

As a good friend told me during Wine Future Rioja 2009, "the flexibility of a reed supports a gale better than the rigidity of an oak tree, and, if you want to see this liar fall, you had better learn to be a little more flexible*."  (*GD note: The friend advised Alberto Gil to let up on his journalistic crusade because Gil was almost fired from his job.  He suggested that Gil should not matyr himself, predicting that Campo would eventually self-destruct.)

(PDTA: With many greetings to the disbelieving journalists and bloggers, like myself, Jim Budd, Gerry Dawes, Harold (Heckle) and Manuel Camblor, who saw Pancho Campo walk with head held high during Wine Future Rioja 2009, with the approval of the entire wine sector, the politicians and the Spanish press.")

Ryan Opaz, Catavino: "Pancho (Campo) has consistently brought the shadow of scandal, something that no innocent man has ever had to deal with as much as he has. Spain has put a lot of money in Pancho’s pocket, and what’s amazing is not Pancho’s ability to extract it, so much as Spain’s willingness to let it go!"

* * * * *

Hey, ho! Please let Pancho go! ~ Time for some wine drinking. - - Ryan & Gabriella Opaz's Catavino Blog

 

Some selected quotes from Ryan Opaz's column today, Dec. 8, 2012:

On Pancho Campo and WineFuture Rioja 2009: 

 "I have no love for Pancho Campo. Our relationship has been a mixed affair; of myself begrudgingly accepting an opportunity that I thought could lead to better exposure for my own brand. Wine Future 1 was great, and I thank Pancho for the opportunity to be there, and for being given a voice. It helped me immensely but that does not mean that I have to like the guy who organized it, just respect what he did. Nor do I need to love the event as a whole. Wine Future is stuck in the past. It claims to predict the future by inviting pillars of the industry that point out what is wrong with the present, while lamenting the past. Asia may be the future of wine consumption, but it is not wine’s future.

 In addition, despite great networking opportunities, I don’t think the event helped the industry as a whole. There weren’t many groundbreaking theories or thoughts beyond the ability to cram so many egos into such a small stage all at one time, myself included – an effort Pancho should be commended for. It made great photos and fodder for us all to riff on. But most importantly, Wine Future wasn’t good for Spain." 

 On the shadow of scandal surrounding Pancho Campo:

"It is true that Pancho’s Spanish Wine Academy has done a lot to spread the good word about Spanish wine, but at what cost?  Pancho has consistently brought the shadow of scandal, something that no innocent man has ever had to deal with as much as he has. Spain has put a lot of money in Pancho’s pocket, and what’s amazing is not Pancho’s ability to extract it, so much as Spain’s willingness to let it go!"

 

On Pancho Campo and the corruption of ethics of the Wine Advocate:

I do believe he corrupted the ethics of the Wine Advocate, a magazine that I have held a lot of respect for, and for this I think Pancho should get a firm wag of the finger, but he did nothing illegal. Between you and I, I think that the order of importance of things in Pancho’s life goes something like this: Pancho, Family, Money, Ferraris, Skiing, Jet Skiing and Wine. But that is not a crime. Wine pays the bills so the rest can be enjoyed.   

(GD: Between you and me, Ryan, I think you may be right.) 

 On Robert Parker and . . ."today your points at times corrupt the industry.

Oh and Robert, Mr. Parker, Bob. I really like you. You are the reason I am in wine. You made me fall in love and now I’m in it for life. You’ve taught me so much that I feel I need to return the favor by saying, WAKE UP. Criticism does not mean that the person criticizing you necessarily is wrong, or bad, or a blobber! It means they might have a point, so at least listen. Grow a thick skin and realize you are not better then the people who read your magazines, or more moral than the bloggers who hope to one day have a voice of their own. 

 Engage. I love what you did for the wine industry. You changed it, but today your points at times corrupt the industry. You are smart enough to see this, even though you claim that people give your points too much credit. It might be that you haven’t given them enough yourself.  Speak honestly about the trouble points have created in the wine industry. We are not going to get rid of them, they are part of the wine industry love them or not, but help us to work through our addiction to them. Teach us to use this force wisely. We don’t need a Ralph Nader of wine anymore, what we need is a wine lover who shares our passion and their knowledge. That should be you. You should help us to be better as an industry.

(GD: Though you have done marvelous things in your few years in being involved with wine, please realize that, until the last 20 years, those of us who were in it from back when called it "the wine trade," not "the wine industry.")

Neal Martin, Jay Miller's replacement for reviewing Spanish wines for Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s The Wine Advocate on his blog in 2006: "I know that winewriters are supposed to be interested in all viticultural regions, but I have never really got under the skin of Spanish wine."

* * * * *

"Spanish tasting at the Old Billingsgate market. I know that winewriters are supposed to be interested in all viticultural regions, but I have never really got under the skin of Spanish wine. This tasting does little to alleviate my apathy, terribly organized with stands seemingly randomly spread around the hall. An interesting Spanish New Wave showcase catches my eye and I head there, meet Alex Hunt who is busy writing philosophical articles for "The World of Fine Wine", which is currently only available to members of Mensa. I sample a dozen rather moribund Rioja's and then coerce him to take lunch with me. The event is redeemed by splendid Catalan cuisine, which Alex and I load up on twice. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?

I have a laugh at the deplorable relaunched "Wine & Spirit" magazine, before deciding that I really should leave and finish off some work back at HQ. I think I need to visit a few Bodegas to inspire my interest in Spanish wine." - - Neal Martin, Jay Miller's replacement for reviewing Spanish wines for Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s The Wine Advocate, on his blog in 2006.  

Robert M. Parker, Jr.: "Jay’s responsibilities in Spain and South America will be taken over by Neal Martin who has long had a serious interest in these three extremely significant wine producing countries, and David Schildnecht will pick up Jay's coverage of Oregon and Washington." 

Martin was appointed by Parker to take Miller's place after Miller stepped down in the face of the overwhelming controversy stirred up over his association with Chilean-Spanish empresario Pancho Campo, a former rock and tennis promoter in Dubai (where an outstanding charge of fraud in that country caused an Interpol warrant  to be issued for his arrest.)

From Kosolo on Wine, The Hades of Parker ". . . the very moment Parker (Robert Parker, Publisher of The Wine Advocate) released this statement Murciagate became not only a scandal but a Greek tragedy in its purest form

* * * * *

 "If you are like me and find it interesting to follow the twists and turns of the so-called Murciagate I can assure you, we’re not alone. What I find most interesting, even above the essential question whether the abuse of status has been systematic or just a wrongdoing of a single person (or the evidence shown at Jim’s Loire a forgery) is not what most makes me tick. The incidents are not the most important thing for me, neither the people involved. For some reason it’s the story itself. The way it unfolds. While sipping my coffee this morning I realized that the very moment Parker released this statement Murciagate became not only a scandal but a Greek tragedy in its purest form.

The story of Murciagate has some archaic appeal to it, no doubt. As people we are drawn to stories and myths with such vigor. They work within the structures of culture interwoven in the texture so seamless that we don’t know whether we act in these structures or these structures more in us.

Let’s see what the good old Aristotle has to say about tragedy and read these real life events as a text. A tragedy obviously needs a plot but who’s the protagonist of this story? One might easily be inclined to think it was Mr. Pancho Campo, because he is undeniably in the core of events now unfolding. That, how ever, would be a mistake. Although Mr. Campo’s agency has been most vital for the plot to build up he’s not the protagonist of the story. In fact, the role of the villain falls on Mr. Campo.

Mr. Jay Miller isn’t the character either though it’s claimed Mr. Campo did the accused deeds in his name. In fact in this text, he’s only a vessel for the villain used to for many purposes. At the same time Mr. Miller might be seen as the false hero according to Vladimir Propp and a catalyst for a tragedy potentially of epic-scale.

The protagonist of the story is in fact Robert Parker himself. He was pulled in reluctant without a choice, drawn in from a distant location, just the way the protagonist should be. This is not the only thing that makes Parker a great main character, because as Aristotle put it:

“ The protagonist should be renowned and prosperous, so his change of fortune can be from good to bad.”

The protagonist’s has to conduct a hamartia, a tragic error of epic scale; a wrong doing which he carries out either by ignorance or mistake. If the protagonist is malign, sinister or evil, the play isn’t a true tragedy like this one. This part of the tragedy becomes self evident when you read Parker’s latest response on the evidence provided at Jim’s Loire.

“The change should come about as the result, not of vice, but of some great error or frailty in a character. That is hamartia.”

Read the rest of this compelling post:  The Hades of Parker, Kosolo on Wines

Another Brouhaha Involving Pancho Campo, Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate and Parker's Spain Correspondent Dr. Jay Miller

* * * * *

English wine writer Jim Budd of Decanter Magazine and Jim's Loire blog continues to write about the controversial Pancho Campo MW, sidekick of Robert M. Parke, Jr. of The Wine Advocate, personal guide to Parker's Spain correspondent Jay Miller and a man associated with such wine world figures such Jancis Robinson and Kevin Zraly.  

According to numerous sources, Campo's Marbella-based Wine Academy of Spain has charged or is attempting to charge substantial fees (from 20,000 to 100,000 Euros) to arrange Jay Miller's visits to Spanish wine regions and for tasting the wines of the regions in question (Navarra, Jumilla-Murcia and Madrid [D.O. Madrid declined] are the regions figuring in recent press reports).  Critics are comparing this situation to the payola scandals of the record industry in years past.  

Miller's ratings for wines in Navarra, the only region so far known to have paid (100,000 Euros), should carry gold stars, since Navarra wineries paid their weight in gold to get their wines reviewed The Wine Advocate, a publication that has often been likened by Mr. Parker to Ralph Nader's supposed consumer advocacy.  (Lest we forget, Ralph Nader's candidacy in 2000 drained enough votes from Al Gore to swing the election to George W. Bush.)

Robert Parker in La Rioja for Pancho Campo's Controversial 
WineFutures-Rioja Conference 2009. Photo by Rioja.com.

Jim Budd is not the only writer reporting on this Pancho Campo-Jay Miller flap.  Tyler Colman's  Dr. Vino and Mike Steinberger's Wine Diarist blogs have also reported on it.  And  some observers have speculated that this situation (and other reports of other questionable activities concerning writers for Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s The Wine Advocate that have been circulating for some time) have undermined the credibility of both Parker's wine writers, of The Wine Advocate and of Robert Parker himself. 

Here are some related posts.  

Jim Budd, Jim's Loire

 

Saturday, 5 November 2011 The Wine Academy Spain solicited 20,000 euros from DO Madrid for Jay Miller visit

Jumillagate or more properly Murciagate: new statement by Asevin

Saturday, 5 November 2011 Pancho Campo MW's considered reaction to Jumillagate Jumillagate or more properly Murciagate: questions sent to Jay Miller

 

Comment:

Russ Raney said... (The late Russell Alan “Russ” Rainey of Evesham Wood Vineyard and Winery)

 

Hello Jim, 

 

I (happily) stumbled across your blog while doing some research for my own little blog project. The Jay Miller issue immediately caught my eye - and was no surprise to me. Here's why: I'm the former owner of an established Oregon (Willamette Valley) vineyard & winery, whose wines routinely garnered "good" scores from The Wine Advocate over the years. However when Jay Miller assumed the Oregon wine reviewing responsibilities (after the departure of Pierre Rovani)he scheduled a visit to our winery - along with our new owner, after which he gave us the lowest scores in my memory - while complaining about the tasting conditions (we were in the process of moving out that day). Afterwards one of our top retail customers who knew Jay's modus operandi, commented that "you just didn't pamper him enough - you know, pull out the foie gras and époisse etc". My suspicions were confirmed when I saw which producers received the highest marks in this issue of the WA. I personally find it unprofessional for wine writers to make a definitive assessment of a wine tasted on premise (esp. from barrel) with the proprietor - it's simply too easy to get cozy (or not!) with the host. I started reading the WA back in 1979 when Parker was still using a typewriter - and have sadly watched as the publication has become less and less of an "advocate" for consumers while more and more a hype machine using the "pay to play" approach. Their abuse of the overly subjective 100 point score system was one the incentives I needed to push me into my own wine review project. Thanks for making my day! Keep up the vigilance!  

 

Friday, 4 November 2011  Jumillagate or more properly Murciagate: no answers from Robert Parker or Jay Miller

Thursday, 3 November 2011 Jay Miller, Pancho Campo, The Wine Academy and Asevin: bodega visit rises to 2000 euros

Thursday, 3 November 2011 Jumillagate/Murciagate: Jay Miller – "will be totally transparent"

Wednesday, 2 November 2011 Jumillagate/Murciagate: A cover-up in Southern Spain

Wednesday, 2 November 2011  My questions to: Juan Antonio Ruiz Jiménez, Asevin

Tuesday, 1 November 2011 Jay Miller, Pancho Campo, The Wine Academy and Asevin

Tuesday, 1 November 2011  29,000 € for a two and a half day visit to Murcia: 24th-26th November 2011

Monday, 31 October 2011 Jumillagate or more properly Murciagate – some questions

Dr. Vino (Tyler Colman) 

There’s no point! Wine retailers that say no to scores

Regional group charges wineries fees for Wine Advocate tasting

Changes at The Wine Advocate? Correspondence with Parker and Miller (2009)

The Wine Diarist (Mike Steinberger)

Dinero Por Nada, November 3 by Mike

"As you may have seen, there’s a new flap involving Wine Advocate contributor Jay Miller. Producers in the Murcia region of south-eastern Spain received a letter last month informing them that if they wanted their wines tasted by Miller during his upcoming trip to the area, they would have to pay $275-$415 for each wine submitted." Read the rest of the story here.

Given the controversy stirred up by Pancho Campo's and Jay Miller's actions in Spain, can the following report be a great surprise?

Robert Parker admits his influence on wine world is "on the wane"