Exactly what is a consumer advocate?

The world's most influential and eminent wine critic, Mr Robert Parker claims to be a consumer wine advocate but what is a consumer wine advocate and what does one have to do to retain the legitimate use of that title?

Now obviously a consumer “is a person who purchases goods” and according to the Collins English dictionary they add the words “for their own personal needs” as part of the definition. The definition of the word advocate is “a person who upholds or defends a cause” and once again the Collins English Dictionary has more, in this case it’s the word “supporter.”

So if we sling the whole thing together a consumer wine advocate should be a person who will defend or uphold and support improved opportunities of the purchase of wine for people who are buying it for their own needs. In other words, they will endeavour to make things better for people who are buying wine to consume.

It could and will be argued by some that purchasing wine for “investment” is for their “own personal needs” but in reality its not, it’s an investment. “Own personal needs” represents personal consumption, i.e. buying the stuff to drink.

So how does this fit in with Mr Parker. Not many people would argue when Mr Parker started his illustrious and very successful career he had a great and positive impact on the wine business and was in fact very much an advocate. He spoke out against dirty winemaking in many parts of the world, particularly France. Parker was also responsible for wineries not only having to clean up their act but in many cases improve the wine that was being made.

 All of this was good and he became very successful, people were listening to the man. Over the last thirty years more and more people are now listening to the pronouncements, pontifications, prose and above all the points that Parker preaches. Over that time he has had a very positive impact on the wine trade and became an excellent “consumer wine advocate.”  He has been very successful and good on him for doing so.

Unfortunately that success has come at a price. And that price is high but it is not Parkers fault; it’s the fault of the people that have bestowed so much power in one person. 

The cost is to the consumer is pretty obvious. As soon as a wine gets a high score from Parker it becomes unavailable and the price rockets as people rush to buy it. In fact this rush is so obsessional that there are numerous complaints, posts, threads and suggestions, time after time on US wine forums (especially the forum associated with eRobertParker.com). The complaint is that some people are getting their Wine Advocate before others and how unfair the situation is for the consumer. All sorts of suggestions have been proffered by disgruntled subscribers because they feel they are missing out because their copy was received a day or two later than some other subscribers. This is not fancy, its fact, just have a look at the last one titled “A demand for action of Parker & The Wine Advocate  for proof (if you want to be bored out of your brain.)

This demand which is created by Parker’s consumers creates a vicious circle syndrome. Parker rates the wine highly; people can’t get it so the price goes up. Because the price is now higher it must be a great wine so people are prepared to pay more for it. There are literally hundreds of examples where wine sold for $20-50 that have quadrupled in price since they were discovered by Parker.

So the fact is the very success of the self styled “consumer wine advocate” is now responsible for doing exactly the opposite of what it started out trying to achieve. It’s no longer protecting the interests of wine consumers because one of those major interests is obviously related to price. Parker’s impact on price is even worse for the consumer as he is also heavily relied upon by wine investors and as I stated at the beginning, a consumer (by dictionary definition) is not an investor.

Parker’s power is immense and it’s not just the pricing impact. There are some Australian producers that are deliberately fashioning wine with a certain style in an endeavour to rate highly so that they may be discovered by Parker. These fruit rich bombastic in your face wines are popular with those drinkers with a sweet tooth and that’s fine. Some of them will sell and sell well but unfortunately many of those same sweet tooth wine lovers are some of Parkers biggest followers for Australian wine but they are not the whole market, just one segment that are easily influenced. The reason that some winemakers are chasing Parker followers is that if they are discovered it’s easier and a lot faster for them than breaking into the market and building up their client base slowly.

Fortunately whilst Parker wields enormous influence now that will not always be the case. Is it Parkers fault that he is so successful, of course it is; he is good at what he does! Is it his fault that his followers have bestowed so much power in his every word, of course not!

Is Parker still a consumer wine advocate that “upholds or defends a cause for people who are purchasing wine for their own personal needs” or has his very success defeated on his original objectives? You be the judge.