I just received my first issue of the Wine Spectator in almost 8 years. I had let my subscription lapse when I last moved and was told it would take upwards of 60 days to move my subscription to a new address. This was 2007, the age of the internet, how could it possibly take so long to change my address in their database? Whatever, I did not need the Wine Spectator. I had been collecting wine for over 15 years. I knew what I liked. On top of that there were great online sites like erobertparker.com that had fresh content every day from wine collectors the world over.
Fast forward to the Summer of 2015. Many of the wines I bought 8 years ago have become so expensive that my purchases have decreased significantly or the wines are just no longer of interest. I still buy Leoville Barton and Spottswoode but certainly not in half case increments. I simply stopped buying wines like Araujo and Cos d’Estournel. I hope the Wine Spectator will enhance my own efforts to broaden my horizons on what is new and exciting in my favorite wine regions. For instance, Tim Fish who covers California Zinfandel for the Wine Spectator, was all over wineries like Bedrock and more recently Limerick Lane long before the wines were hard to get. I can’t wait to hear about his next discovery.
Secondly, the online wine board scene is old and stale. Robert Parker has put up a pay wall and new posts now only trickle in. Wineberserkers is still somewhat compelling but the tone is derisive. Posts about new wines get lost in adoration threads for board favorites like Sine Qua Non, Saxum and Rhys and bashing threads on far ranging topics including John Kapon, Maison Ilan and Premier Cru.
All roads in my wine journey do not lead to Burgundy. I want to hear about wineries like Ferren that was recently profiled by the Wine Spectator. I want to see a series of high scores for Arista in the recent Wine Spectator Pinot Noir 2013 vintage report.
So job well done to the team at the Wine Spectator. You hooked me 20 years ago and then managed to get me back when I thought I know longer needed you.
By the way, in the event anyone from the Wine Spectator reads this, it took almost 60 days from the time I sent in my subscription form to delivery of my first issue. I do hope your systems have improved.
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Sounds like as good a reason as any to buy a magazine. My biggest problem with Wine Spectator is that they don’t profile women or people of color very often. Or they haven’t in the past. I’m sure it simply doesn’t occur to them to do so. Still, they’er missing some damn good wines.
I’ll keep an eye on that. Some of my favorite wines like Brown Estate and Lillian would fall into those categories.