Chinese name: Robert Finigan.

Robert finnegan

Nationality: USA

Birthplace: Virginia

Date of birth:1September 22, 942

Date of death: 20 111October 01.

Occupation: wine and restaurant critic

Graduate School: Harvard University

Masterpiece: Robert Finigan Private Wine Guide.

character introduction

Robert Finigan (1942.9.22-201.10.1), a famous American wine and restaurant critic, published the bimonthly Wine Newsletter in the 1970s. 20111kloc-0/,the first generation of wine critics died at their home in San Francisco at the age of 69. According to his wife Susanna, the cause of finnigan's death is still unknown.

Nowadays, wine, like works of art, is invested as "liquid gold" by businessmen. But more than forty years ago, RobertFinigan became the "first consumer advocate" for wine lovers with his professionalism and love for wine.

experience

Finnigan became interested in wine tasting when he was a Harvard student. There are also classmates from France in his own class. They produce wine at home. So after school, finnigan began to travel in France, and spent all his spare time studying and understanding wine and the whole wine industry.

After graduating from Harvard, finnigan moved to San Francisco on 1967. Like most other Harvard students, he became a management consultant and lived a rich and stable life. But finnigan is still obsessed with wine research, because in San Francisco, he began to understand the local Napa Valley wine. At that time, California wine was not well-known in the United States, but it was consumed on the west coast.

The experience of traveling to Europe for many times has given Finigen the opportunity to be familiar with the wine producing areas of France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, and his wine collection is also increasing day by day. At this time, although finnigan was not an authority on wine tasting, he was so famous in the local area that after traveling around, San Francisco winemakers asked him about the quality of wine.

Not knowing whether to buy vintage wine, San Francisco Wine Company asked finnigan about 1969 Bordeaux wine. Enprimeur refers to the unlisted high-grade wine, which is first sold in the form of futures. Every spring, many wine merchants offer them to the market, especially in Bordeaux. At this time, famous wineries all over the world will take out a small amount of wine from last year's oak barrels and hold a grand wine tasting party to let the international quality Committee, wine merchants, distributors and wine journalists know more about this year's quality. The quality of vintage wine obtained through this evaluation will become an important factor in its bargaining, and will also determine the spot price this year. Consumers buy wine at a discounted price, pay taxes and freight after aging, and then receive the spot. For wine merchants, this kind of cash advance has been partially differentiated, transferring the investment risk of cellar wine to consumers. For consumers, this is an excellent opportunity to buy their favorite wine at a low price.

After tasting the wine in the un-bottled oak barrel, Finnegan thought it was very common, and advised the wine merchants to "stay away from" Bordeaux 1969 wine. Finnigan is right. His evaluation is consistent with other appraisers' views on this year's wine. From then on, finnigan became famous.

Finnigan's wine publication was named "Robert Finigan Private Wine Guide", which was first published in September 1972 and mailed to thousands of wine experts in California. At that time, Finney was a subscriber to Jack Shelton's personal guide to restaurants. It can be said that Sheldon is the object of his imitation. Sheldon himself moved from new york to San Francisco and began to work in mail advertising. However, because of the mentality that "San Francisco is such a unique and wonderful city that it deserves a unique and wonderful guide", Sheldon first published the book "Enjoy San Francisco in 1 to 10", and a few years later, he published an authoritative restaurant guide of 1300. Finnigan hopes that his publications will have the same impact on the wine industry as Sheldon's restaurant guide. This wine guide covers wines from California and Europe that can be bought in restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

Finnigan's publications, like his vision, won him a reputation in the wine industry. By 1977, Robert Finigan Private Wine Guide has become a national wine publication in the United States. Different from the popular method of grading wines by numerical value or percentage system, finnigan's publications classify wines into excellent, above average and below average. His publications are as consumer-oriented as possible and are not afraid to criticize those wines that Finigan thinks are ordinary, so they quickly became popular.

A stern critic

"finnigan must be the first critic with a heartless attitude," said Matt Kramer, a columnist of Wine Observer, who once called Finnegan "the first consumer advocate" for wine lovers. "He is a particularly harsh critic. He won't leave any room. "

Finnigan once called the Burgundy 1976 vintage "garbage" mercilessly. "For finnigan, he has always been a supporter of Black Pi Nuo and Burgundy, and calling it garbage is unprecedented," Kramer recalled. "But it's not painful because he's right."

Chicago Tribune 1986 reported that when Finnegan gave a wine the highest evaluation, "readers will flock to the shops selling wine, and their wallets are open." And his views are so important that "French wine merchants will call him and theorize one of his views." Food critic Ruth Rachel wrote in 1980. Finnigan was also one of the early advocates of California wine. The wine produced here has not attracted the attention of American wine lovers before.

In addition, he was an early supporter of Russian wine merchant AlexisLichine. Li Xing has played a vital role in promoting the labeling of different varieties of wine. He is also a skilled wine seller and owns shares in Lixian Winery and Lux Gold Winery.

Finnigan often drinks wine with Richmond at Lixian Winery and his apartment in new york. Li Xing also supported finnigan and praised his old friend for his "perfect judgment and absolutely well-trained taste". The two were closely related, and Li was lucky enough to give finnigan the key to the French manor. Even if Ricky is not at home, she will let the housekeeper treat finnigan as if he were at home.

Major setback

However, in the1980s, finnigan's position as an authority on wine tasting was weakened because of his own mistakes or his excessive persistence.

1983 In March, finnigan was one of the few wine tasters in the United States who could go to Bordeaux to taste 1982 vintage. In fact, in 1982, finnigan spoke highly of Bordeaux in his own publication. But when he tasted the wine himself a year later, he was very disappointed. He thinks that this year's wine is too heavy and lacks some aroma, which is "very dull". Although this year's wine was called "probably the best Bordeaux wine after the war" at that time, finnigan still gave this year's wine a bad review in the publication of 1983 on March 30th, and recommended his readers to save money to buy 1980 and198.

Finnigan's views set him against Robert m Parker. At that time, Parker was becoming the most influential wine critic in America, and he also owned his own wine newsletter, Wine Advocate.

Parker gave the highest evaluation to 1982 bordeaux wine, calling it the best year of bordeaux wine in that century, and predicted to wine lovers who had never bought 1982 wine that the price would definitely soar this year. At the end of 1983, James suckling, the author of Wine Observer and a connoisseur of wine and cigars, gave the same view as Parker. At this time, finnigan still insists on his own position and has negative comments on this year's wine.

Unfortunately, more and more critics agree with Parker. At the same time, the price of wine has really gone up this year. Now, according to Kramer's estimation, Bordeaux wine of 1982 can already fetch 10000-20000 dollars at auction. Finnigan's influence as wine spectator gradually faded. By the end of 1980, his position was far behind that of Parker and other critics. Parker quickly entered the list of American wine "leaders".

Due to his own mistakes, the reputation of finnigan's publishing was also implicated, and it stopped publishing on 1990. However, finnigan maintained his influence as a restaurant critic in San Francisco.

work

Despite setbacks in the wine industry, finnigan never gave up his research on wine. He continued to write wine reviews, and published several related works, including Robert Finigan Wine Essentials (1987) and Corks and Forks: 30 Years of Wine and Food (2006). The previous works are considered as a very comprehensive and cultured guide.

In this book, finnigan wrote, "Don't be afraid of wine, but embrace it. Like painting, architecture or other art forms, it can provide infinite diversity for curious people. If you want to try wine, you will realize the fact that it is only grape juice after all. "