Elin McCoy (who will be stopping by this Wednesday, December 7 for our Wines of the World discussion/tasting) recently wrote a remarkably interesting biography about, of all things, a newsletter editor. Robert Parker of the The Wine Advocate is described by The Economist as someone whose reviews “can make or break a winemaker, and be the difference between profit and loss for those sad people who buy wine merely as an investment.” McCoy’s The Emperor of Wine turned out to be some of the most addictive oenophile reading we’ve come across in this post-Sideways world.

We’ve got some other high-profile guests at Wines of the World, too: Best Cellars CEO Joshua Wesson; W.R. Tish, former editor of Wine Enthusiast; Master Ki-Choon Lee of Korea and Saveur magazine’s Colman Andrews. And alongside them, the real stars—wines from Argentina, Australia, France, Israel, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States.