Founder of Wine Spectator Dies at 78
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Robert Morrisey, whose love of wine was initiated by his doctor’s advice and grew into a passion that inspired him to create the Wine Spectator publication, died March 26 of congestive heart failure. He was 78.
Morrisey was a casual drinker of gin martinis in the late 1960s when his doctor suggested he switch to wine for health reasons. He became a wine columnist for the San Diego Evening Tribune, and then created a 12-page tabloid newsletter in 1976, the Wine Spectator, which went on to become America’s top-selling wine publication.
The biweekly tabloid had an inaugural print run of 3,000 copies, which Morrisey and his wife, Mary Jane, initially distributed by hand.
He sold the magazine, which now has a circulation of 400,000, in 1979.
