Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide by Robert Parker is the American version of a complete and easy-to-use reference guide on recent vintages, prices, and ratings for more than 8,000 wines from all major wine regions all over the world. Since his famous break through in the 1980s, Robert Parker is a big believer in testing the new vintage in situ, this means directly on the estate. You might run the risk of being spoilt with wine reserved for the tester, but Parker is also well known for his thumbs down (therefore, persona non grata at some of the well-known wine chateaus in France). His 100 point score systems has many fans and opponents - still, nowadays it is hard to get around Parker and his scores - as wine producer or wine lover.