Robert Parker Jr certainly knows how to grab your attention. In the preface to his just published book The World's Greatest Wine Estates: A Modern Perspective (Simon & Schuster, $US75) the American critic spends a few words on his critics. Do people really want to turn the clock back, he asks, to a time when "disappointingly emaciated, austere, excessively tannic wines from famous terroirs were labeled 'classic' by a subservient wine press that existed on the largesse of the wine industry?" Whether he was referring to James Halliday or not (see The Differences of Opinion Continue), I hope this volume finds its way in to my Christmas stocking. It promises to be a wonderful read.