Hello,
My father is interested in selling his complete collection of original Robert Parker Wine Advocate newsletters. I was planning to help him post an auction on eBay, but first I wanted to see if there was anyone on this group who might be interested. Given the ephemeral nature of newsletters, this is likely one of the most complete collections in existence.
If you are interested, please contact me offlist at snipped-for-privacy@nc.rr.com. If the collection isn't sold privately, and it does go to eBay, I'll post another message letting the group know when auction starts.
Thanks, Dan McCleary
Here are some of my father's notes on the collection:
"I have the first 20 years of Parkers newsletters with the exception of No. II (2) which came out before I subscribed. I do have No. I which was given out free at some local wine stores. This represents 119 issues at a cost of over $3,000 (subscription price)
- The first five issues were called “The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate” The name changed to The Wine Advocate with issue VI.
- The issues used Roman Numerals until Issue #30 which used regular numbers.
- The first issues identified retail liquor stores in the Baltimore Washington area that sold the wine recommended. Profiles of local wine stores were included in the early issues. I still have some of them.
- Parker became famous for predicting the quality of the 1982 Bordeaux vintage. Issue XXVI (26) in April 1983 was the first to call attention to this fantastic vintage.
- The early issues are very interesting because of the low prices for which excellent first growth wines could be purchased.