21 comments

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  RichardA

  1 year ago

  Though I am largely in agreement with the main sentiment of this post, I do differ on the value of some wine magazines. I admit that I am a voracious reader. I read several wine mags regularly, including Decanter, Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits, Food & Wine, and Quarterly Review of Wines. I read them because I do find articles of interest within them, articles that may be informative and educational. For example, I have found a number of Wine Spectator articles to be educational, especially when they discuss various wine regions or talk about certain wineries. Plus, the magazines mention far more wines than any single blogger could possibly cover. That gives me some basic info about wines I may have never heard of before. You can just ignore the scores.
  
  
  Could wine mags be better? Definitely. But I don't think they can be just dismissed out of hand as they do contain some value.
  
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  Ryan

  1 year ago

  Agreed there is some good content, and like I said it mainly stems from the places where money and time can help. If you have a huge budget and the ability to take time for a story you can top most bloggers, for now. Hopefully we seem more "pro" wine bloggers change this, and we end up with more investigative pieces by the "common folk" :)
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  Wilf Krutzmann

  1 year ago

  Ryan, as you say "Wine is about friends, family, food, friendship, frivolity, and..." In our daily hectic lives, we tend not to stop and smell the roses or in the case of us wine drinkers not slowing down for a few precious moments to fully enjoy the fruit of the vine. Good post. I had the pleasure of meeting Felipe Gonzales-Gordon from Bodega Gonzales-Byass when he was the guest speaker on Sherries here in Victoria for the Academy of Spain wine seminar last weekend. Talk about passion. That is what wine is all about for me. Greetings from Victoria, British Columbia!
  reply
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  RichardA

  1 year ago

  Though I am largely in agreement with the main sentiment of this post, I do differ on the value of some wine magazines. I admit that I am a voracious reader. I read several wine mags regularly, including Decanter, Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits, Food & Wine, and Quarterly Review of Wines. I read them because I do find articles of interest within them, articles that may be informative and educational. For example, I have found a number of Wine Spectator articles to be educational, especially when they discuss various wine regions or talk about certain wineries. Plus, the magazines mention far more wines than any single blogger could possibly cover. That gives me some basic info about wines I may have never heard of before. You can just ignore the scores.
  
  Could wine mags be better? Definitely. But I don't think they can be just dismissed out of hand as they do contain some value.
  reply
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  Ryan Opaz

  1 year ago

  Agreed there is some good content, and like I said it mainly stems from the places where money and time can help. If you have a huge budget and the ability to take time for a story you can top most bloggers, for now. Hopefully we seem more "pro" wine bloggers change this, and we end up with more investigative pieces by the "common folk" :)
  reply
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  Wilf Krutzmann

  1 year ago

  Ryan, as you say "Wine is about friends, family, food, friendship, frivolity, and..." In our daily hectic lives, we tend not to stop and smell the roses or in the case of us wine drinkers not slowing down for a few precious moments to fully enjoy the fruit of the vine. Good post. I had the pleasure of meeting Felipe Gonzales-Gordon from Bodega Gonzales-Byass when he was the guest speaker on Sherries here in Victoria for the Academy of Spain wine seminar last weekend. Talk about passion. That is what wine is all about for me. Greetings from Victoria, British Columbia!
  reply
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  RichardA

  1 year ago

  I agree Ryan that money plays a significant factor. How many bloggers can survive solely on the money generated from their blogs? Probably none. Bloggers who make money are generally involved in other wine endeavors, such as those with their own stores or those who represent wineries. Or they get sponsors who will help support some of their endeavors. Though most of that is probably still miniscule compared to the budgets of the major wine publications. That situation probably won't change too soon either. Though there are some promising signs, especially as bloggers acquire more and more credibility.
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  RichardA

  1 year ago

  I agree Ryan that money plays a significant factor. How many bloggers can survive solely on the money generated from their blogs? Probably none. Bloggers who make money are generally involved in other wine endeavors, such as those with their own stores or those who represent wineries. Or they get sponsors who will help support some of their endeavors. Though most of that is probably still miniscule compared to the budgets of the major wine publications. That situation probably won't change too soon either. Though there are some promising signs, especially as bloggers acquire more and more credibility.
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  AllAboutAlavesa

  1 year ago

  Great post Ryan! Although I have to admit, I am kind of torn up inside because I both agree and disagree with you. As an importer in the U.S., we are basically at the mercy of all the different wine mags, especially Tanzer and your personal favorite, Parker. I say this because unfortunately, 99% of all stores almost require you to have shelf talkers for your wine if you want your product to sell. Yes, I admit, I am one of those people that puts scores right in your face, but my livelyhood literally depends on it. I wish this wasn't the case, but you know as well as I do that some people follow these magazines like a cult and won't buy a wine or go out of their comfort zone if it doesn't have a stamp of approval and a high rating from these mags. While some of the magazines will occasionally have an interesting or informative article, this is where I applaud Catavino and other blogs for focusing their writing and attention about WINE not about SCORES. Take your recent Rioja project for example, I haven't read a magazine article that in depth, that focused, but most important, that personal about Rioja in any of them, and they have the money to do a project like that!! This is what I think the big magazines need, a little personality. There is so much happening in the wine world today that I feel we need several different outlets for all this information, including the Parkers and Tanzers, but let's just hope they can open their eyes to new and different types of wine drinkers.
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  Ryan

  1 year ago

  So ALLABOUTALAVESA what can be done to wean people off the points? If you don't like them, and I do know your need for them(I worked retail), I wonder what you can do to help people to realize they don't need them. Or what can be done, to help people look at them differently.
  
  
  I am completely serious when I ask the critics to start blogs. Why not! Lot's of them hate the points too, so why not have them actually talk about wine. Become human, relate to us the readers. Discuss with us, their weakness's and strengths...A pipe dream? Maybe....but it will make for nice dreams for sure!
  
  
  
  thanks for chiming in!
  
  reply
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  AllAboutAlavesa

  1 year ago

  Great post Ryan! Although I have to admit, I am kind of torn up inside because I both agree and disagree with you. As an importer in the U.S., we are basically at the mercy of all the different wine mags, especially Tanzer and your personal favorite, Parker. I say this because unfortunately, 99% of all stores almost require you to have shelf talkers for your wine if you want your product to sell. Yes, I admit, I am one of those people that puts scores right in your face, but my livelyhood literally depends on it. I wish this wasn't the case, but you know as well as I do that some people follow these magazines like a cult and won't buy a wine or go out of their comfort zone if it doesn't have a stamp of approval and a high rating from these mags. While some of the magazines will occasionally have an interesting or informative article, this is where I applaud Catavino and other blogs for focusing their writing and attention about WINE not about SCORES. Take your recent Rioja project for example, I haven't read a magazine article that in depth, that focused, but most important, that personal about Rioja in any of them, and they have the money to do a project like that!! This is what I think the big magazines need, a little personality. There is so much happening in the wine world today that I feel we need several different outlets for all this information, including the Parkers and Tanzers, but let's just hope they can open their eyes to new and different types of wine drinkers.
  reply
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  Ryan Opaz

  1 year ago

  So ALLABOUTALAVESA what can be done to wean people off the points? If you don't like them, and I do know your need for them(I worked retail), I wonder what you can do to help people to realize they don't need them. Or what can be done, to help people look at them differently.
  
  I am completely serious when I ask the critics to start blogs. Why not! Lot's of them hate the points too, so why not have them actually talk about wine. Become human, relate to us the readers. Discuss with us, their weakness's and strengths...A pipe dream? Maybe....but it will make for nice dreams for sure!
  
  thanks for chiming in!
  reply
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  allaboutalavesa

  1 year ago

  Well Ryan, my answer to your question is obviously complicated and has many different answers, but I think you touch on one of the main points that leads in that direction. You have already made the case several times, both in your main article and your post above, the critics need to start blogs!!! We 've already seen a huge jump in people takin charge and educating themselves about wine, which I think needs to progress even more, but I believe that is a step in the right direction in itself. I think readers need to trust their own palates more and not rely on the tastes and let's be real here, the opinions, of some of the wine critics. However, I think we do need to recognize the fact that these critics do know wine at a extremely professional level, so I don't think getting rid of the point system and the big name critics all together is possible, or even a positive thing. I guess in a long round-about way to answer your question, I think people need to educate themselves more, read the critics reviews with a grain of salt, and try as many different wines out there as possible to discover their own palate. Just because Jay Miller will score a big extracted Rioja a 96 (what does the plus mean really anyway?) doesn't mean that everyone will like it. Wilf mentioned above "Wine is about friends, family, food, friendship, frivolty and...." Isn't this really why we drink wine?
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  allaboutalavesa

  1 year ago

  Well Ryan, my answer to your question is obviously complicated and has many different answers, but I think you touch on one of the main points that leads in that direction. You have already made the case several times, both in your main article and your post above, the critics need to start blogs!!! We 've already seen a huge jump in people takin charge and educating themselves about wine, which I think needs to progress even more, but I believe that is a step in the right direction in itself. I think readers need to trust their own palates more and not rely on the tastes and let's be real here, the opinions, of some of the wine critics. However, I think we do need to recognize the fact that these critics do know wine at a extremely professional level, so I don't think getting rid of the point system and the big name critics all together is possible, or even a positive thing. I guess in a long round-about way to answer your question, I think people need to educate themselves more, read the critics reviews with a grain of salt, and try as many different wines out there as possible to discover their own palate. Just because Jay Miller will score a big extracted Rioja a 96 (what does the plus mean really anyway?) doesn't mean that everyone will like it. Wilf mentioned above "Wine is about friends, family, food, friendship, frivolty and...." Isn't this really why we drink wine?
  reply
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  Alex

  1 year ago

  Interesting that this item has popped up at the same time ... some journalists showing humility and sense!
  
  
  
  
  <a href="http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html ">http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html
  
  reply
• 

  Alex

  1 year ago

  Interesting that this item has popped up at the same time ... some journalists showing humility and sense!
  
  
  
  
  <a href="http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html ">http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html
  
  reply
• 

  Alex

  1 year ago

  Interesting that this item has popped up at the same time ... some journalists showing humility and sense!
  
  
  
  
  <a href="http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html ">http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html
  
  reply
• 

  Alex

  1 year ago

  Interesting that this item has popped up at the same time ... some journalists showing humility and sense!
  
  
  
  
  <a href="http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html ">http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html
  
  reply
• 

  Ryan

  1 year ago

  I agree these Big names know a ton, and I want them to stick around, but I want them to realize that sharing their knowledge could help defeat some of the problems that they themselves complain about. More than once Jancis, Hugh, Tanzer, even Parker have bemoaned the sheep reliance on their points. By them opening up a bit, and realizing they can still make money, while sharing info on the web, they could help us to all move past these issues we have.
  
  
  Granted there will always be issues, one of the biggest developments in wine in the past 30 years has been Parker entering the world with his points, and I think the second biggest thing to occur will be when he retires. Points I will never argue are any help to anyone, and have become a crutch for too many. Lazy people need points. Wine should not be for lazy people(well maybe mogan david!). In my opinion Wine writers should be there to educate, explain, and illustrate, not to make my being lazy an easier task.
  
  
  
  Oh and I do hope we continue to have experts publishing books, and memoirs, espousing their knowledge. I jsut want them to step into the new world of the internet. What would it be like if the next edition of the Wine Encyclopedia were to come out in Wiki form, or at the very least on an interactive website. I like books, but I also want the search ability that comes with the web.
  
  
  
  ok, there are a few more thoughts! ;)
  
  reply
• 

  Alex

  1 year ago

  Interesting that this item has popped up at the same time ... some journalists showing humility and sense!
  http://www.decanter.com/news/253458.html
  reply
• 

  Ryan Opaz

  1 year ago

  I agree these Big names know a ton, and I want them to stick around, but I want them to realize that sharing their knowledge could help defeat some of the problems that they themselves complain about. More than once Jancis, Hugh, Tanzer, even Parker have bemoaned the sheep reliance on their points. By them opening up a bit, and realizing they can still make money, while sharing info on the web, they could help us to all move past these issues we have.
  
  Granted there will always be issues, one of the biggest developments in wine in the past 30+years has been Parker entering the world with his points, and I think the second biggest thing to occur will be when he retires. Points I will never argue are any help to anyone, and have become a crutch for too many. Lazy people need points. Wine should not be for lazy people(well maybe mogan david!). In my opinion Wine writers should be there to educate, explain, and illustrate, not to make my being lazy an easier task.
  
  Oh and I do hope we continue to have experts publishing books, and memoirs, espousing their knowledge. I jsut want them to step into the new world of the internet. What would it be like if the next edition of the Wine Encyclopedia were to come out in Wiki form, or at the very least on an interactive website. I like books, but I also want the search ability that comes with the web.
  
  ok, there are a few more thoughts! ;)
  reply