Robert Finigan

Who was Robert Finigan?

Robert Finigan was an American wine and restaurant critic based in San Francisco, California. Finigan exerted his greatest influence as a wine critic in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with his monthly newsletter.

Robert Finigan's interest in wine was sparked while studying at Harvard University. After having completed his studies, he moved to San Francisco in 1967 to take up a position in management consulting. There, he became acquainted with Napa Valley wines, at a time when California wine had not reached national popularity, but was primarily consumed on the west coast. Several business trips to Europe also offered him opportunities to become acquainted with French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish wine regions. His first opportunity to try his hand on wine criticism came in 1970, when San Francisco wine merchant company Esquin's asked him to evaluate the 1969 Bordeaux vintage, since Esquin's was uncertain whether to buy the wines en primeur. After tasting the unbottled wines from cask, Finigan was unimpressed and advised against buying, and it turned out that this evaluation was later reflected in other critics' evaluations of the vintage.