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The accusations on his website included claimed that
she was facing a jail term of five years, and a possible €1m fine
for fraud and misrepresentation. He described the charges against his
former associate as overwhelming.
Judge Philippe Jean-Draeher ruled that the remarks made
by Parker through his official website erobertparker.com,
were defamatory and clearly an attack on the presumption of innocence.
He has been asked to pay her a compensation of €2,000 and another
€1,500 for costs. The judgment adds that readers of Parker's website
would be influenced in believing that she was guilty.
Agostini has been under investigation for forgery and
using false documents in relation to a fraud case against a Belgian wine
merchant. "I have always said I was innocent and I could not let
an accusation like this go by," she said.
Satisfied by the judgment she said, "The point is
that one cannot compromise presumption of innocence."
Agostini is being investigated for forgery and using
false documents, but not fraud, according to Philippe Gumery, her lawyer.
The genesis of the ongoing war has been the book she
published last October. In Anatomie d'un mythe, Anatomy of a
Myth she had questioned his working methods in the book, accusing him
of errors and favouritism.
Agostini, who trained as a lawyer, worked for Parker
between 1995 and 2003, organising wine tastings. Since 1997 she had also
been translating many of his wine guides and other works including the
popular bi-monthly "The Wine Advocate" in French.
Accusing him of cutting and pasting from one year to
the next without updating his facts, she said Parker 'does not respect
the consumer. He says 'I am the defender of the consumer', but sells a
book with flaws.'
Reiterating a frequently-heard criticism of Parker, Agostini
says in the book that he and his friend Michel Rolland from Bordeaux-Rolland
is also a wine consultant to Grover Vineyards in India, work hand in glove
in favour of richer, riper, and easier to drink wines.
Since the wine critic began visiting Bordeaux to taste
its wines two decades ago, he has been a key player in building the region's
reputation for producing the best, and most expensive, wine in the world.
His system of marking from 1-100 may make or break any producer. The points
given by his magazine Wine Advocate are used extensively even in India
by the foreign producers and importers even though Parker he may never
have tasted a wine from that country.
Perhaps one has not heard the end of the episode, not
yet.
Subhash Arora
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