Interesting essay: Wine Media is Broken

[Jenise]

https://www.everydaydrinking.com/p/wine ... case-study

It is quite an interesting piece. Jeb Dunnuck's take on it was even more powerful:
https://twitter.com/jebdunnuck/status/1567629734431043586?s=20&t=3GzfLgCAT_z9AfRO99xltw%20109

He really rakes Vinous and thus Antonio Galloni over the coals. It certainly gave me a stronger way to hate the score inflation that is happening all around us.

[David M. Bueker]

Much of the information had been out there, so while I think the system is largely broken, the article broke no new ground.

Galloni was a nice enough guy at one point (I spent several hours conversing with him at an offline right when he launched his original, independent publication), but he has become much more vindictive and defensive in recent years. He now has an “empire” to defend, and his corporate banking instincts are overwhelming any humanity and grace he once put forward.

Crazy stuff and just reminds you how far we are from the mainstream wine world. These publications and scores are essentially irrelevant for me, but they tap into lots of money moving through the market, which (apparently) enables the business to survive.

This is unsurprising but nevertheless depressing. I wonder how far the same applies to wine criticism in Europe (including the UK for this purpose!).

The only wine publication to which I now subscribe is the la Revue du Vin de France (RVF) having dropped many years ago Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Jancis Robinson and Decanter. Judging by the extensive in depth coverage given by RVF to obscure regions and small producers, I doubt if the influence of mega bucks is very strong but individual critics have of course their personal biases based on friendship, hospitality, gifts and possibly in some cases more direct financial incentives.

European consumers too are undoubtedly influenced by critics' scores. One German based web seller, Wine in the Black, regularly drops offers into my inbox like today's headline "94 points Suckling: everyone loves Uro Toro". I find this approach automatically turns me off a wine which may be worth more exploration. The French web sellers tend not to headline critics' scores but often quote them in more detailed comments.

[Jenise]

Crazy stuff and just reminds you how far we are from the mainstream wine world. These publications and scores are essentially irrelevant for me, but they tap into lots of money moving through the market, which (apparently) enables the business to survive.

So true. On the site I lifted this link from, one frequent poster there while apparently prepared to believe anything about anyone else, with an almost religious zeal hotly defended the Wine Spectator--of all people. He had no evidence, he just reveres that publication so it must be so. And no, he never noticed that the Spectator's major advertisers always seem to get wines in the Top 100.