Terry Robards, 84, Dies; Lifted Fine Wines in America as a Times Critic

Terry Robards, a former wine critic for The New York Times whose writing in the 1970s and ’80s helped Americans move beyond jug Chablis and cheap Chianti to explore regions and styles as far away — and, at the time, as exotic — as Burgundy and Tuscany and as close as upstate New York, died on May 23 at his home in Upper Jay, N.Y., near Lake Placid. He was 84.

His wife, Julie Robards, said the cause was heart failure.

The year 1976 was an inflection point for American wine culture. In France, two California wines beat out their French competitors in a blind tasting known as the Judgment of Paris. In the United States, Wine Spectator, the leading magazine for oenophiles, began publication.

And in New York, Mr. Robards wrote “The New York Times Book of Wine,” the first significant book to cover American wines.

Mr. Robards, who was then a financial reporter for The Times, did in his spare time what any good wine journalist would do: He toured vineyards and cellars around the country and in Europe, interviewing winemakers and gathering material for frequent articles and, ultimately, for his first book.

“Terry was not only coming to taste wines but also to understand the ‘why we do certain choices in our grape growing or winemaking paths,’” Véronique Boss Drouhin, the head winemaker at the Joseph Drouhin winery in France, wrote in an email. “He would listen carefully to the philosophy behind the viticulture and winemaking.”