Parker is often acknowledged as the most influential wine critic in the world.
It is said that if he scores a wine more than 90 points out of a hundred, you can't buy it because it's sold out and if he scores it below 89, you can't sell it.
However, he was never a fan of New Zealand wines and his 2001 Wine Buyer's Guide covered the country in half a page, criticising the wines for their herbaceousness and lack of ripeness.
Martin's subsequent reviews in the Wine Advocate and on erobertparker.com were their first reviews of New Zealand wine in 15 years.
Neal Martin (38) was among the luminaries at the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration 2009 recently.
In 2003, as a means of alleviating boredom, he started his own website with tasting notes and stories, www.winejournal.com, which soon attracted 150,000 readers, he said.
One day he received an email from Robert Parker inviting him to join his team. He almost deleted it along with other spam, thinking it was a hoax.
Some people accuse Parker of being a dictator, his preference for big, alcoholic, extractive, oaky wines influencing the styles of winemaking and wine prices around the world.
But he allows his team of writers complete freedom with their own opinions, even if they differ from his, and Martin's often do, particularly with reviews of Bordeaux wine.
"Parker's a very relaxed guy. People often have a preconception about him, but most people who have met him and even those who have a different opinion respect him," Martin says.
Winejournal.com is now included in erobertparker.com and continues Martin's quirky, humorous style and forthright tasting notes.
The latest edition of Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide, which came out in November last year, had more extensive coverage of New Zealand wines and named five outstanding wineries - Ata Rangi (Martinborough), Felton Road (Central Otago), Pegasus Bay (Waipara), Rippon Vineyard and Winery (Central Otago) and Te Mata Estate (Hawkes Bay).
Martin was delighted to find this trumpeted in many places on his recent trip to this country but also a bit miffed that they were attributed to Robert Parker.
"It annoys me slightly. I feel like scrawling that it was actually me that picked those five.
I hope in the long term people recognise it's me, it's my opinion, but there's nothing much I can do about it."
Before joining the Parker team he had been following New Zealand wines for seven or eight years as many were available in the UK.
And after tasting the Central Otago pinot noirs at the celebration, and discussing their ageability, he said whenever he compared two vintages, he preferred the younger ones.
He pointed out there was a difference between a wine not falling over after a few years in the bottle, and actually developing more complexity while still retaining fruit, which is what the great Burgundies and Bordeaux wines of France could do.
And, if you twisted his arm, he would have to say he preferred Martinborough pinot noir to Central Otago, he admitted.
Still, local winemakers can be comforted that his selection of five top wineries included two from Central and only one from Martinborough.
