Michelin buys 40% of Wine Advocate

Michelin, the French tyre manufacturer and owner of the acclaimed Michelin restaurant guides, has announced it is buying a 40% stake in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and the website RobertParker.com.

Michelin said today (5 July) that its decision to buy a 40% stake in Wine Advocate reflected a growing opportunity in combining food and wine reviews. A fee for the deal was not disclosed.

The Wine Advocate has been in publication since 1978, founded by Robert Parker. It was sold in 2012 to a group of Singapore investors led by Soo Hoo Khoon Peng, at the same time as Robert Parker stepped down as editor-in-chief.

The publication began to increase the number of tastings and wine dinners from this point, primarily in China and across Asia. Since 2016, these have included partnerships with Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.

‘Working with the Michelin Guide on (these) events demonstrated… the similarities between our core values, integrity and rigour as critics within the worlds of wine and food,’ Wine Advocate’s editor in chief, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, said in a press release this week.

Alexandre Taisne, CEO of food and travel at Michelin, said that the initial focus for the new partnership will concentrate on Asia and North America before expanding into Europe and other regions of the world.