Once upon a time...
In a place far, far from where I live, there was a man. A lawyer. Some would call him a hillbilly from the countryside. He himself confessed to a striking resemblence of a Chimp, or a big Gorilla. Because...oh yes, he was and still is big-boned. Some say this planet is not big enough for his Ego. Some say he runs over cows in a Bowler Nemesis in his spare time, while others claim he's just helping Kaley Cuoco, from The Big Bang Theory, tipping cows with his bare hands. Some even say his bulldogs are not the ones farting. Some actually say he's the Stig, but he isn't. He's the Stig's American cousin.
And his name is Robert M. Parker.
I blame him. For everything. Had it not been for him, I would most probably have a normal, ordinary life somewhere, with normal friends and normal hobbies. But I don't. And I haven't. All because of Bob and because of his damn passion for fermented grape juice and the way he conveyed his adoration for wine with a prose that made it simply impossible to resist. I just had to taste the wine myself! And as a result, I too became trapped and succumbed into this insane passion simply called...wine.
While working on a little secret writing project of ours, visiting him at his home on several occasions, I usually extended my travels across the Big Blue Atlantic Pond to visit the countryside outside Monkton, Maryland. After each visit, I continued to California, where so many of his favourite wineries are found, aside from the usual suspects in Bordeaux. I was curious to taste the wines myself, the ones that seem to tick all his boxes of what makes a great wine. And I wanted to find out what the winemakers were saying about him, the alleged Emperor of Wine, the Gorilla at the top of the food chain of all wine critics. This Quest took me to a path I had not anticipated when I took the first trembling steps on my long journey. Like the wine landscapes in Piedmont and Germany, I found that California too is home to many extraordinary people who are as genuinely passionate about wine as anywhere else on Planet Earth.
The California Report is a tribute to those people, their stories and their wines, and above all, a celebration of Robert M. Parker who helped me discover not only Californian wines but also this entire PASSION that Brings People Together...wine.
