Wine Spectator founder Robert Morrisey dies of heart failure

Robert Morrisey, founder of Wine Spectator, an influential lifestyle magazine for wine consumers, has died of congestive heart failure. He was 78.

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Morrisey died Saturday at a San Diego hospital, according to his daughter, Michele Morrisey.

In the early 1970s, Morrisey, a former Marine officer, developed an interest in fine wine and started writing a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In 1976, he decided to start a publication devoted to his passion, a biweekly tabloid begun on April 1 with an inaugural print run of 3,000 copies, the Los Angeles Times said.

"For the few of us who struggled to launch the original 12-page tabloid newspaper, it was no April Fool's joke," Morrisey, a native of Wheeling, W.Va., wrote in the magazine's 20th anniversary issue. "It was an undercapitalized commitment. Of necessity, it had to be a labor of love."