And the winner is.............

[Drew]

"...the rest is status seeking, and bears little relationship to wine consumption."

I don't agree, Foodie. No question what the bread and butter wines are and that 99% of my money is spent on those. Even if you could afford to drink the "big boys" on a daily basis....who would want to? What would you drink for special occassions, and I'm not suggesting that all "big boys" are spectacular wines so let's not start another thread. Wine Spectator is just another tool that I use to help determine if I want to spend some money on a particular wine. Some of my other tools are wine shop owners and friends recs.,this board's recs., Parker's ratings, Wine Enthusiast, Brad Harrington's notes, Bucko's and Randy's notes....even WW notes. I don't agree with everything that WS prints and am not controlled by their rating system BUT, I don't think they're as big a monster as has been suggested either.

Drew