Still in hip Soho, Autre Monde is an independent bookstore and wine dealer that organises inventive tastings with wine prizes.
But the choc-maker Michel Cluizel, based in Normandy, takes the wine-jargon prize by naming one of its bars Chocolat 1er Cru, claiming "this '1st cru Hacienda' chocolate progressively reveals its thoroughbred character, with its intensely aromatic, profoundly typical and fruity flavors that gradually unfold".
But certain wines, like prized vintages of Bordeaux, instead surged ahead.
Others might have shied away from his plan to finance some of the cost of the events by selling "heritage cards" for the chance of wining cash prizes – a lottery in all but name and therefore open to legal challenge.
When he returned home, he brought back more than 300 French wines, including prized Sauternes and Montrachets.
It's that unknown quality that makes Spain so exciting for wine lovers who prize a sense of discovery.
One such is Jean-Pierre Moueix, who as owner of Château Petrus, the most highly prized wine on the right bank, might be expected to be sympathetic to Mr Parker and the garagistes.
In June, a violent attack on six Chinese students attending a prestigious oenology school near Bordeaux further exacerbated anti-French sentiment in China, leading to criticisms of the lure of the French wine industry, so prized by Chinese investors.
The vessels were transporting wine from Italy, prized fish sauce from Spain and North Africa, and a cargo of metal ingots from Italy, possibly to be used in the construction of statues or weaponry.
The winners of the second annual Roald Dahl Funny Prize get wine from the late writer's personal cellar.
Meanwhile, the rest of us — luddites of the wine world who still prize those great whites of the Graves — will cling to the hope that fashion will once more swing our way.
