The critic model seems to be gaining traction. Only this week it was announced that Antonio Galloni’s Vinous had acquired Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. The significance? Once Galloni was tipped to be the successor to Robert Parker as the head of The Wine Advocate, which has long been the most influential source of wine reviews worldwide. Galloni was just one of the Advocate’s team of critics (he joined in 2006), but his importance to Parker was shown by the fact that his annual salary (disclosed on social media) was over $300 000, which is considerably more than wine critics are normally paid. But any dreams of succession that Galloni may have harboured were dashed when Parker sold The Wine Advocate to a consortium headed by fellow team member Lisa Perotti-Brown in 2013. It seemed there was no longer room for Galloni, and he left, starting out on his own.