''Wine Spectator'' is an American
lifestyle magazine
Lifestyle journalism is the field of journalism that provides news and opinion, often in an entertaining tone, regarding goods and services used by consumers in their everyday life. Lifestyle journalism covers travel, fashion, fitness, leisure, fo ...
that focuses on
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces. Each issue also includes from 400 to more than 1,000 wine reviews, which consist of
wine ratings
A wine rating is a score assigned by one or more wine critics to a wine tasted as a summary of that critic's evaluation of that wine. A wine rating is therefore a subjective quality score, typically of a numerical nature, given to a specific bottl ...
and tasting notes. The publication also awards its 100 chosen top wineries each year with the ''Winery of the Year Awards''.
''Wine Spectator'', like most other major wine publications, rates wine on a 100-point scale.
The magazine's policy also states that editors review wines in blind tastings. Wine Spectator's current critics include executive editor Thomas Mathews; editor-at-large Harvey Steiman; senior editors
James Laube James Laube ( ) is an American wine critic, writing for ''Wine Spectator'' since 1980, a full-time staff writer since 1983, with expertise on California wine. Laube has published the books ''California's Great Cabernets'', ''California's Great Chard ...
, Kim Marcus, Bruce Sanderson, Tim Fish, James Molesworth, Alison Napjus and MaryAnn Worobiec; associate editor Gillian Sciaretta and associate tasting coordinator Aleksandar Zecevic. Past critics include former managing editor Jim Gordon, Per-Henrik Mansson, former senior editor and European bureau chief
James Suckling
James Suckling (born September 29, 1958) is an American wine and cigar critic and former Senior Editor and European Bureau Chief of ''Wine Spectator'' as well as European Editor of ''Cigar Aficionado''. Suckling is internationally regarded as o ...
, who served at the magazine from 1981 to 2010, and former senior editor Nathan Wesley, who worked in the magazine's tasting department from 2005 to 2013.
Background and history
![Cullen328 29247](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Cullen328_29247.jpg)
Founded as a
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
-based
tabloid newspaper by Bob Morrisey in 1976, ''Wine Spectator'' was purchased three years later by current publisher and editor
Marvin R. Shanken
Marvin R. Shanken (born October 4, 1943) is an American publisher and founder of M. Shanken Communications. Shanken's roster of lifestyle publications includes ''Wine Spectator'', ''Cigar Aficionado'' and ''Whisky Advocate''. Based in Manhattan, M. ...
. That year, its panel of experts blind tasted and reviewed over 12,400 wines.
In 1981 the magazine introduced its Restaurant Awards program, which reviews restaurant wine lists on three levels: the Award of Excellence (basic), Best of Award of Excellence (second-tier), and the Grand Award (highest). As of 2017, more than 3,500 restaurants held one of these awards.
The magazine organized and sponsored the ''Wine Spectator'' Wine Tasting of 1986 on the tenth anniversary of the
"Judgment of Paris". In 2008 the magazine was ranked by the Luxury Institute as the No. 1 business and consumer publication among wealthy readers. The publication lost longtime senior editor Kim Marcus in January 2022.
Other activities
''Wine Spectator'' operates the Wine Experience, a yearly event that includes wine tastings, seminars, lunches and an awards banquet. In 2017, more than 5,000 people attended in New York City where more than 265 wines were poured just at the two evening Grand Tastings.
The magazine's Grand Tour takes the tastings on the road to three cities each spring, with more than 240 wineries pouring at the events.
The magazine also runs the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation, which as of 2016 has raised more than $20 million to support wine and food education and scholarship programs.
Criticism
![Boomtown Steakhouse - 2021-10-16 - Sarah Stierch 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Boomtown_Steakhouse_-_2021-10-16_-_Sarah_Stierch_02.jpg)
The magazine's Restaurant Awards program has come under some criticism.
[ At the August 2008 conference of the American Association of Wine Economists in ]Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, a hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
exposé
Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to:
News sources
* Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism
* '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website
Film and TV Film
* ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film
* ''Exposed'' (1932 ...
submission of the fictitious restaurant Osteria L'Intrepido was revealed by the author and Fearless Critic
Fearless Critic Media is a US publishing house best known for its books ''The Wine Trials'', ''The Beer Trials'', and the Fearless Critic series of restaurant guidebooks to US cities. The publishing house was founded in 2004, merged with Workman i ...
founder Robin Goldstein
Robin Goldstein is an American author, food and wine critic, and economics pundit. He is known for his books and articles questioning conventional wisdom and pricing in the food and wine industries, particularly a widely publicized exposé of Win ...
: he had won an Award of Excellence for a restaurant that didn't exist and whose "reserve wine list" was full of the lowest-rated Italian wines in history. He stated the exposé to be part of research for an academic paper, whose aim was to discover what it takes for a restaurant's wine list to receive an award from the magazine. With nearly 4,500 restaurant applications, the magazine takes in over $1 million each year from submission fees. Editor Thomas Matthews published an official response on the magazine's forum site.
See also
* List of food and drink magazines
This is a list of food and drink magazines. This list also includes food studies journals.
Food and drink magazines
* ''The Arbuturian''
* ''L'Art culinaire''
* ''Bon Appétit''
* '' Buffé''
* '' Cherry Bombe''
* '' Cocina''
* ''Cooking Light'' ...
References
External links
* {{official, http://www.winespectator.com
''Wine Spectator'' videos
* https://www.wineauctionprices.com/
Lifestyle magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1976
Magazines published in New York City
Wine magazines