Wine Spectator Bashing

[stevebody]

I've always thought that ging to any of these self-important wine gurus - or magazine tasting panels, for that matter - and expecting objectivity is like going to a whorehouse in search of virtue. Parker has his own, very quirky opinions. I trust him to the extent that I don't believe he's in anyone's pocket but his Francophilia is blatant and tiresome. Tanzer, I think, tries too hard to be a tough sell and short-changes a whole lot of worthy wines. Spectator, I firmly believe, is sold out to the Byzantine interwoven business interests of their owners, American Tobbaco. This helps account for some of the puzzlingly charitable scores they give to conglomerate wineeries like Chateau Ste. Michelle, Beringer, etc.

I've always had a simple formulas and it has very rarely failed me: I find three reviews of any wine I'm not able to taste for myself before buying. I average them out. Two of the reviews are always one of the three I mentioned and the third can be from anywhere, most frequently from the estimable Richard Kinssess who writes for the P-I newspaper here in Seattle. If the scores and texts of the reviews are persuasive, I'll take a flyer. Out of the 200 or so times I've tried it, I've only had two bottles that were complete dogs.

Since I sell wine for a living, I do a lot of trade tastings, so I taste most of what comes into our market. But back when I didn't have that advantage, the system was a great help.