In the world of wine, it's the closest thing to a royal visit. And with the buzz building about the arrival of Robert Parker at next week's Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival, Todd Halpern is at pains to make the ground rules clear.

"He doesn't want to be a monkey on display," says Mr. Halpern, the importer who persuaded the wine potentate to donate his presence to this three-day fundraiser for Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals.

When you're the man known as the Emperor of Wine, whose tastes set prices and determine global trends, you get to call the shots. It's not even clear how long the 58-year-old critic and publisher of the newsletter The Wine Advocate will grace Toronto with his low-key walkabout. He has definitely RSVPed for Thursday's five-hour tasting event at the National Club, but has not yet committed to Friday's chef-catered dinners in 25 private homes around the Greater Toronto Area or the Saturday-afternoon auction that completes the $1,500-a-person package.

Mr. Halpern thinks he can persuade his American friend to hang around for a tour of the dinners, which pair chefs such as Jamie Kennedy and Mark McEwan with wines from the likes of Château Margaux and Vega Sicilia. And if he won't linger for the auction -- which features an all-expenses-paid trip for four to the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Ga., next April, a barrel of Puligny-Montrachet from Mr. Halpern's own Burgundy house, and a private jet trip for 10 people to New York for dinner at Daniel featuring a "mystery host" -- well, just guess who the unnamed host might be, and what kinds of wines he would bring from his personal cellar.

Perhaps because he started out as a lawyer for a bank, Mr. Parker is prized less for his prose (which runs to phrases like "gobs of fruit" and "a winemaking tour de force") than for his 100-point marking system -- anything 90 and over is considered a buy by high-end readers who don't have the time to waste on writerly details.

So complicated that many Parker followers who will line up at the LCBO early Saturday morning for a wine that scores in the 90s will bypass a lowly 89. "Is there a meaningful difference between an 89 and a 91?" asks John O'Connor, a lawyer for Manulife who feeds off Mr. Parker's enthusiasm but balks at such critical fine distinctions.

The Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival runs from Oct. 27 to 29. $1,500 for a full festival pass. For more information, visit http://www.grandcru.ca .

This is cache, read story here