Just about through with Wine Spectator

[stevebody]

I recently dropped them here at the shop. I brought in ten copies an issue and always wound up with at least seven left. None of my customers ever said they follow their reviews and most openly scoffed at the "secret" connections between WS, Stimson lane, and American Tobacco. I once got a "May Be Actionable" note from Thomas Matthews for relating in one of their forums what most wine people here in Seattle say about WS: that WS reviews are for sale and that their consistent praise for Chateau Ste. Michelle is because they're both owned by American Tobacco. I never bought that idea but it's made the rounds for years, here. I told Matthews that he could shoot the messenger if he wanted to but that wasn't likely to change the fact that it's said. He eventually dropped it.

They just seem like what Dan Jenkins, in his novel "Semi-Tough", once called Sports Illustrated: "a slick cookbook for the two-yacht set".