By the way, at the time that James wrote this in May, 2009, CellarTracker had 900,000 community notes. That has since grown to more than 1.5 million total notes in the next 15 months.
I think that all the information and buzz on wine is great thanks to the Internet! But I think experienced wine critics are more necessary than ever as reference points.
That is why CellarTracker has relationships with Steve Tanzer, Allen Meadows, Jancis Robinson, Roy Hersh, John Gilman, Brad Baker and many more. For the paid publications people see ALL of the reviews so long as they are valid subscribers. In other words, they are not giving anything away.
So my followup question, if you will speculate, why wouldn’t Parker and Spectator participate in such a scheme that delivers more value to thousands of their subscribers and which will also drive many new subscribers? (I have my own speculation, but I would love your perspective.)
It’s a good question. I must say, though, that Mr. Suckling’s two-sentence answers aren’t providing much depth and insight in this forum. I hope he’ll offer a little bit more.
I can’t answer for the Spectator or Bob. I just believe that there is a lot of noise on the Internet on all subjects, and reference points will become more and more important. History and knowledge are important for communicating about all things of value including wine. In this case, the medium is not simply the message.