The idea of the hour long seminar on the US and Chinese markets first appeared after the tariff story broke. All the emails during October I have seen spoke of a visit from Jay Miller, whose purpose was to rate wines/vintages from Murcia that had US importers and had not been rated previously by The Wine Advocate. These selection criteria were sent to the authorities in Murcia by The Wine Academy of Spain. No mention of a marketing seminar.
Miller was to have been in Murcia in his official capacity as Parker’s man in Spain.
Glad to hear it. I was about to ask whether Jay Miller’s expertise of marketing to the Chinese is as deep as his expertise in Spanish wines?
I have always felt that Parker, Squires et al was a case study in how to damage your image, piss of your customers and bring your ethics/credibility into questiion. However, Jay’s continuous presence at the WA ensures that that case will not be closed.
This may well have been done without Jay’s knowledge, but he does seem to be awfully accident prone, and pretty naive. Somehow when there is sh^t around, he always seeming to be covered in it.
‘Glad to hear it. I was about to ask whether Jay Miller’s expertise of marketing to the Chinese is as deep as his expertise in Spanish wines?’
Apparently Jay was to talk on the US market, while Pancho would talk on China. Quite why this hour-long seminar will require the presence of three or four employees of the Wine Academy of Spain remains unexplained.
I don’t really want to say too much about this event but the Wine Academy of Spain is a fine-sounding name. As is the Royal Academy of Music, which is an old and venerated institution. I guess I should create an organization at my kitchen table, consisting of me and my wife, and call it the NYC Academy of Wine.
But how to obtain credibility?
The WA connection provides credibility to the W.A.S., which was an organization few people seemed to have ever heard of, and the connection has allowed Mr. Campo access to bodegas he’s never been able to visit before. Thus, the connection works for both parties.
Jay doesn’t speak Spanish so he needed a translator. Remember, Bob never said he hired him for his knowledge of Spanish wine, and neither of them ever claimed that he knew anything about it. The point was that Bob felt he had a reliable and a good palate, not any particular expertise. So he needed a way to get around and the W.A.S. needed to develop some credibility, and it became a mutually rewarding partnership.
Who’s looking long term though? When W.A.S. put together a production in Spain, Dr. Jay was strangely silent and at the event coming up in Hong Kong, who is going to talk about Spanish wine?
The people in the local trade organizations are desperate to sell their wine, they want attention from anywhere, and if they have to pay a few dollars and listen to someone who has never in his life visited their area tell them all about their wine and where it fits into the overall scheme of things, that’s just the price to pay for hope.
Wine Advocate Writer Standards (not firewalled): https://www.erobertparker.com/info/wstandards.asp
I thought about copying and pasting them here, as I believe doing so in the context of this discussion is permissible under copyright law, but Todd gets enough hassle from Parker’s lawyers.
It seems that Jay’s conduct and failure to disclose past remuneration runs afoul of even the lesser standards applicable to him. But that isn’t a surprise to anyone. Nor is the lack of discussion on Parker’s board or his seeming lack of enforcement.
I didn’t read the article, but I’m assuming Jay Miller is going to pay me to visit? How long does he have to stay? He looks like a guy who would put a serious dent in the monthly grocery bill…
“This blogger posted about Miller/Campo charging for tasting Spanish wines or for visiting Spanish wineries a while ago.We launched an investigation at that time despite the fact that both Miller/Campo denied all the allegations. We found no substance or truth to any of the allegations.Now he has brought similar charges. This time we have requested our lawyers to fully examine every allegation again, and they have also retained an additional lawyer, from Madrid, to study the allegations, and if again false, consider legal action. Jay chooses and controls 100% of the wines he tastes and wineries he visits. He uses the Spanish Wine Academy(Pancho Campo is their President) to assist in organization.We would never permit a winery to pay us for the priviledge of tasting their wine or visiting the winery.Moreover, Campo also understands his organization cannot charge wineries for Miller’s visits.Both of them have full knowledge that is an appalling conflict of interest that would not be tolerated under any circumstance.There have been trade conferences organized by the Spanish Wine Academy that Jay has been paid a fee of $10,000(which seems reasonable) and far less than the amounts reported by this blogger.
I have been asked by our USA lawyers to refrain from commenting about this given the potential lawsuits by Jay,by Pancho, and possibly by TWA against these bloggers.Until we are 100% certain of all the facts, I think this subject, which appears to be a reckless and malicious disregard for the truth and clearly aimed at damaging Miller, Campo, and TWA, needs to be closed.”
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