Galloni leaves The Wine Advocate

Wine critic Antonio Galloni has announced he will be leaving The Wine Advocate this spring.

Galloni, lead critic for the journal founded by Robert Parker, has said that he will be moving his reviews to antoniogalloni.com still focusing on Champagne, Burgundy, Italy and California.

Galloni explained in a statement that he felt a “strong desire” to return to his “entrepreneurial roots” that began with his Piedmont Report in 2004.

He continued: “I will continue to strive toward greater accessibility for readers in their appreciation of wine as I build on these innovations through my new venture. www.antoniogalloni.com will enable me to serve my readers better than ever before, always with the goal of assisting them in making informed wine choices and introducing them to great as yet undiscovered wines.

“In growing this new project my priority is to build a team of the highest-level professionals – appreciating, of course, that world-class talent is rare and hard to find.”

“I will maintain my current travel, tasting and publishing schedule. Our readers at www.antoniogalloni.com will have complete access to the entire library of more than 25,000 reviews and several hundred articles which I have written over the course of the last 10 years.”

“I want to thank my long-time readers, many of whom date back to the Piedmont Report days, for their unwavering support, and also Robert Parker for encouraging me to follow my passion in wine.”

Galloni also added that the new site would be aimed at younger readers and would focus on a broader range of multimedia platforms than the more traditional TWA.

The Los Angeles Times speculated that Galloni’s decision to leave was spurred on by Parker’s sale of the journal to a Singaporean investor and the appointment of Lisa Perotti-Brown MW as editor rather than Galloni – who was widely regarded as Parker’s successor.

Galloni is currenttly said to be looking for more investors, but the website should be fully operational by March.