Galloni next to leave the stinking ship...

WINE TALK
41

and he is the boss [rofl.gif]

42

Yeah. Gotta empathize with AG. It was a huge decision to leave the corporate thing for full-time wine writing with TWA. He just has to roll with it at this point. I’m sure this ride is a lot more wild than expected.

43

Parker found out by reading this thread!

44

OMG is that funny.

45

Hi new site just opened today:

http://www.antoniogalloni.com/about.html [cheers.gif]

About > www.antoniogalloni.com


On February 12, 2013 Antonio Galloni announced the launch of > www.antoniogalloni.com> , a multimedia, technology driven platform. Galloni will continue his extensive reporting on the wines of Italy, Champagne, California and Burgundy, while expanding coverage to other regions.

At the time of his departure, Galloni was the lead critic at The Wine Advocate, having authored 1/3rd of the reviews published by The Wine Advocate in 2012. Galloni also ran the world’s most followed bulletin board on Italian wines and spearheaded The Wine Advocate’s production of video content. He developed tailored public events & seminars such as the highly anticipated “La Festa del Barolo,” vertical tastings focused on the benchmark wines of Italy, and numerous charity dinners.

Antonio has a BA from the Berklee College of Music and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He speaks fluent Spanish, English, Italian and French. Antonio lives outside New York City with his wife and two young children.

46

I have a feeling that Galloni felt slighted by not being able to buy the publication, hence his exit. Either by not being given the chance to buy it, or being out bid by Lisa Perrotti’s band of investor, which makes me think they over paid for it.

Kudos and best wishes to Antonio. Can’t wait for the release of his own journal.

Any guess how much work there is to be made up? Didn’t Galloni cover like 50% of the reviews??? Yikes.

47

After meeting Antonio earlier this month with the group and sharing wine, food and laughs, I can say he seems to have what it takes to be successful and I wish him nothing but the best.

Cheers!

48

Okay, so I do miss some worthwhile things by not involving myself with Twitter. Very funny!

Not surprising but it leaves the WA brand even more adrift. I join the well wishes for AG.

49

I found it on Galloni’s page, he rated 1/3rd of the wines in 2012.

50

So now who to rate CA for the Wine Advocate? Are we headed back to 100point sizzurp w/ a side of donkey sauce?

51

At the time of his departure, > Galloni was the lead critic at The Wine Advocate, > having authored 1/3rd of the reviews published by The Wine Advocate in 2012

If he hadn’t quit, that might have gotten him fired! I wonder if Bob would disagree

52

According to the new boss/not boss, wine writers are a dime a dozen, no?

Antonio got a degree in music???

53

I think he’s talking volume of reviews, not ranking

54

It’s funny…someone over dinner a few weeks ago told us this was going to happen. I just can’t believe that Parker found out a day or two ago… It doesn’t make sense.

55

Wasn’t it predicted multiple times in the thread here on WB, announcing the new ownership?

56

Wait no more, Keith Levenberg! I hope that nobody is shocked by this, but my take is that Antonio just moved on to the only possible greener pasture, under the circumstances. Apparently he will have an online forum on his own terms, no longer saddled by the steaming turd that is today’s Wine Advocate (and we all know whose turd it WAS, don’t we?), doing events in which his honest, deep desire to teach people something about wine shines through. He is now free from the shackles of being a “wine critic” of the fatally flawed Parkerian mold if he so chooses, and he also gets to leave his flawed Parkerian palate behind and maybe get his old one back, now that he no longer has to taste 10,000 wines a year and serve up a few sentences of nothing much about each, all the while with the deadline gun at his head. He could be the thinking man’s Vaynerchuk! I wish him nothing but the best in his new endeavor, and I hope that he takes with him enough clout to make a successful go of it. (But even if I felt otherwise, I used up my lifetime allocation of venom to be directed at EX-wine critics (as opposed to my allocation of venom for CURRENT wine critics, which is obviously limitless) when Suckling jumped ship!)

I doubt that there is much more mileage to the speculation about the “why” in his particular case. The range of possibilities is limited…he did not come up with the money to buy Parker out, Lisa PBJ is a bitch on wheels who meant what she said about critic expendability, the Asian investors either have a business plan to make WA virtually 100% Asia-centric or perhaps are just morons to let the only likeable, vaguely interesting member of the WA staff go, etc., etc., etc. If the comments on the Squires board at the end of last year are any indication, this will cost the WA a goodly chunk of its dwindling base of non-ITB subscribers. It could not happen to a more deserving lot…

Best of luck, Antonio!

57

He posted today on the Squires board that Antonio told him a few hours ago and that he had expected this. It was, as Neal said there, a very classy post by Bob wishing Antonio well in his new venture and praising all he had done at the WA.

58

I think this is good news for wine drinkers as it might dissuade some wineries from making wines to please certain publications as their critics will show some turnover.

I like Antonio’s reviews and wish him all the luck in the world. I’m glad I didn’t renew my WA subscription when it expired last year.

59

Several thoughts:

Antonio’s got a rough road ahead of him in terms of trying to monetize a website. I’m sure he’ll continue to do lots of wine events but they are a lot of work to put together and I’m not sure the return is what he’s used to with his prior careers at TWA and in finance.

Second, I’m surprised he didn’t have a non-compete clause, even as an independent contractor. As written, sounds like he’ll be in DIRECT competition with the new TWA.

Third, interesting that Bob (not casually, I’m sure) noted that he had only been told “hours ago.” Eric Asimov must have interviewed him this morning (the article notes the interview was Tuesday, and was published online at 2:10pm), so Bob didn’t find out at least until Antonio agreed to be interviewed by the Times.

All in all, it sounds slightly hasty and more importantly, how will this be monetized. Its not easy making a living in online journalism…just ask the New York Times, among other ventures…

60

Nice to see unanimous well wishes here for a wine critic!