Terry Robards, a former wine critic for The New York Instances whose writing within the Seventies and ’80s helped Individuals transfer past jug Chablis and low cost Chianti to discover areas and types as distant — and, on the time, as unique — as Burgundy and Tuscany and as shut as upstate New York, died on Might 23 at his residence in Higher Jay, N.Y., close to Lake Placid. He was 84.
His spouse, Julie Robards, mentioned the trigger was coronary heart failure.
The yr 1976 was an inflection level for American wine tradition. In France, two California wines beat out their French rivals in a blind tasting generally known as the Judgment of Paris. In america, Wine Spectator, the main journal for oenophiles, started publication.
And in New York, Mr. Robards wrote “The New York Instances E-book of Wine,” the primary vital e-book to cowl American wines.
Mr. Robards, who was then a monetary reporter for The Instances, did in his spare time what any good wine journalist would do: He toured vineyards and cellars across the nation and in Europe, interviewing winemakers and gathering materials for frequent articles and, in the end, for his first e-book.
“Terry was not solely coming to style wines but additionally to grasp the ‘why we do sure selections in our grape rising or winemaking paths,’” Véronique Boss Drouhin, the top winemaker on the Joseph Drouhin vineyard in France, wrote in an e mail. “He would pay attention rigorously to the philosophy behind the viticulture and winemaking.”
By the late Seventies the e-book was introducing hundreds of American readers to positive wine, and Mr. Robards was thought of one of many nation’s main wine writers, a small, largely self-taught cadre that included Robert Parker Jr., Anthony Dias Blue and Robert Lawrence Balzer.
Mr. Robards wrote articles with titles that might sound unusual in in the present day’s wine-fluent world, akin to “The Case for Purple Zinfandel” and “The Topic Is Rose,” which made the argument for rosé as an aperitif at a time when most Individuals drank it as an ungainly compromise between white and pink wine.
He was later a wine critic for The New York Publish and a senior editor for Wine Spectator. His different books embody “California Wine Label Album” (1981) and “Terry Robards’ New E-book of Wine: The Final Information to Wines All through the World” (1984).
Mr. Robards additionally established himself as a service provider in 1988 with a brick-and-mortar retailer, Terry Robards Wine and Spirits, in Lake Placid. It grew to become a frequent vacation spot for wine fans.
Mr. Robards and his spouse used the shop as a classroom, holding seminars and tastings that gave perception into regional types, terroir, cellaring and varied winemaking secrets and techniques.
Sherman Marshall Robards was born on Oct. 7, 1939, in Manhattan and grew up in Pleasantville, in Westchester County, N.Y. His father, Sydney, was an promoting government for RCA, a job whose perks included proudly owning one of many first tv units within the space. His mom, Louise (Sherman) Robards, was an artist who additionally wrote crossword puzzles for The Instances.
Mr. Robards studied literature and French at Hamilton School, in upstate New York. After graduating in 1961, he labored briefly for The Ossining Information, in Westchester, earlier than becoming a member of The New York Herald Tribune as a monetary reporter in 1962.
Whereas on trip within the Bahamas in 1965, he stumbled throughout the Beatles, who have been filming their second film. The manufacturing was so haphazard that it didn’t also have a title. An article that Mr. Robards wrote for The Herald Tribune captured the quartet’s debate over what to name it.
In the long run, what may have been “Tomorrow By no means Is aware of” (Ringo Starr’s concept) or “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Porridge? (steered by George Harrison) or just “Beatles Two” grew to become “Assist!”
When The Herald Tribune folded a yr later, he joined Fortune as a month-to-month columnist. However, lacking the thrill of a every day paper, Mr. Robards jumped to The Instances in 1967.
He was in California on June 5, 1968, protecting marketing campaign finance when Robert F. Kennedy was shot whereas campaigning for president in Los Angeles. Mr. Robards bought to the hospital simply earlier than the ambulance arrived and the authorities put the constructing on lockdown.
He and some different reporters who have been allowed to remain inside fielded calls and fed data to the surface world till Mr. Kennedy died from his wounds 25 hours later.
After receiving a contract for his wine e-book, Mr. Robards relocated from New York to London as a common task correspondent for The Instances, however actually with a watch on Europe’s wine areas.
“I’d work extra time to get each little bit of trip time I may and used it to go to France, Italy and Spain,” he informed The Lake Placid Information in 2021. “I’d discover monetary angles about wine so I may write articles and spend extra time.”
His first three marriages resulted in divorce. He married Julie Robinson in 2004 in a cellar at Remoissenet Pere et Fils, a vineyard in Beaune, France.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Robards is survived by his sons, John and Jeff; his stepson, Tim Robinson; two grandsons; and his sister, Brooks Robards.
His departure from The Instances, in 1983, was not completely nice. By his agent, he had agreed to put in writing a e-book about French wines. The e-book, nevertheless, was completely financed by a French wine firm, a indisputable fact that Mr. Robards mentioned he didn’t know on the time.
His editors declared the e-book a battle of curiosity and eliminated him because the paper’s wine critic. He left The Instances just a few months later for The Publish.
Years later, in Lake Placid, Mr. Robards gained a brand new following as a wine educator, dinner host and raconteur, regaling company with tales about wine and winemakers, in addition to about his early days as a reporter.
He preferred to recall one explicit task throughout his time protecting the auto trade for The Herald Tribune. In 1963, he traveled to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to observe land pace exams for the in the end short-lived Studebaker Avanti.
Earlier than the take a look at driver bought behind the wheel, Mr. Robards was allowed to drive the observe, going quick sufficient to set the world pace report for a common manufacturing automobile.
Lower than an hour later, the take a look at driver set a brand new report. However for a quick stretch of time, Mr. Robards was one of many quickest drivers on the earth.
