Wine Reviews: Not For Snobs Anymore
Posted on February 2, 2014 by bob in Prime Vintage
This democratization of wine is great,” asserted Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s leading wine authorities, over coffee one recent morning. 
She was in Washington, D.C., to promote the seventh edition of The World Atlas of Wine, the indispensable reference book co-authored with Hugh Johnson. Robinson has spent the last four decades writing about wine, publishing thousands of reviews, yet seemed excited about the prospect of consumers putting less stock in her opinion.
“No longer are wine critics and reasonably well-known wine writers like me sitting on a pedestal, haughtily handing down our judgments,” she said. “Nowadays… [consumers] can make up their own minds. That’s altogether a lot healthier.”
To hear Robinson so eagerly applaud the declining influence of prominent critics was refreshing. In the optimistic future of American wine, well-informed consumers will be confident in their own preferences and eager to explore without consulting a professional critic. We’re already well on our way. Just look at CellarTracker.
In 2003, Eric LeVine, a wine collector, built a data-management program for his cellar. His friends begged him to share it online so they could catalog their wines and record tasting notes. So LeVine made his program available to everyone, for free.
The website has become extremely popular, with almost 1 million monthly visitors and 2,000+ wines reviewed each day. This means CellarTracker users review more wines in six days than Robert Parker, the world’s most famous wine critic, reviews in a year. But CellarTracker isn’t just used by oenophiles. About nine in ten visitors are unregistered, regular consumers visiting the site for wine reviews.
This demonstrates that fewer and fewer consumers are relying on the opinions of prominent critics, something wine writer Alder Yarrow (Vinography.com) recently discussed while praising the multiplicity of voices now populating the wine world.
“There are thousands of opinions… “ he said, “and people like me all over the States and all over the world are [now] accepted as critical authorities on wine.”
Such “critical authorities” also share their thoughts on personal blogs, message boards, and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Some, like Yarrow, are well-known wine writers with large audiences. But many are simply influential, local voices – the staffer at the neighborhood wine shop, the hip restaurant sommelier, the wine geek in everyone’s life.
Many amateur critics, along with CellarTracker users, continue to utilize a 100-point scale to “score” wines. But as the number of wine critics increases, one can only assume the reliance on points will diminish. After all, tasting is subjective, and one critic’s 95-point wine is another critic’s swill. That’s why it sometime seems as if every wine on a supermarket’s shelf has been awarded 90 points or more. Such pronouncements only make sense when they’re coming from a critic whose palate you trust.
“I hated it when it was the tyranny of the points,” Robinson said. “I think it affected American retailers particularly badly, who for a long time gave up their own selection process and palates and just rolled over and repeated what [Robert Parker’s] Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator said.“
More and more wine retailers are eschewing points, stocking their shelves with handpicked wines and staffing their business with wine educators eager to chat with customers.
And these customers are growing increasingly comfortable dismissing wine critics who hand down judgements from a pedestal. That’s why the future of wine in America is so bright.
David White is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com, which was named “Best Overall Wine Blog” at the 2013 Wine Blog Awards. His columns are housed at Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine.
