Stephen Tanzer becomes Critic Emeritus at Vinous...

[Neal.Mollen]

Dear William,

I pay lots of money to get hold of the subscription like VINOUS or BURGHOUND or Wine Advocate. I had all three. I subscribed because I wanted to find notes on what interests me (BURGUNDY that is). You yourself published a vertical on DUROCHE’s Latricières recently. It is such articles I want to see on a more regular basis (apart from the annual review on the recent vintage) in an expensive magazine. I also expect to find everything I look for in the issue as it is thrown on line. As Neal Martin did when he wrote excellent verticals on LA ROMANEE and ROUMIER’s MUSIGNY. That was last year. This year I am still waiting for anything similar . It is obvious to me that VINOUS by writing on basically every wine that can be found (an exaggeration of course) tries to attract more readers. Clive Coates also published a “general” issue with lots of regions covered but heavy emphasis was on Burgundy. I highly respect jouurnalists llike you and Neal but VINOUS and WA have clearly other priorities

SINCERELY JOHAN

There seem to be two models for wine reviews these days. Meadows and Leve are exemplars of the single-focus efforts. Since Parker was doing TWA alone and reviewing almost exclusively bdx and Napa, it has been an example of the multi-voice, multi-region approach. If you are looking for the former, Vinous is a poor place to spend your money.

[William_Kelley]

Dear William,

I pay lots of money to get hold of the subscription like VINOUS or BURGHOUND or Wine Advocate. I had all three. I subscribed because I wanted to find notes on what interests me (BURGUNDY that is). You yourself published a vertical on DUROCHE’s Latricières recently. It is such articles I want to see on a more regular basis (apart from the annual review on the recent vintage) in an expensive magazine. I also expect to find everything I look for in the issue as it is thrown on line. As Neal Martin did when he wrote excellent verticals on LA ROMANEE and ROUMIER’s MUSIGNY. That was last year. This year I am still waiting for anything similar . It is obvious to me that VINOUS by writing on basically every wine that can be found (an exaggeration of course) tries to attract more readers. Clive Coates also published a “general” issue with lots of regions covered but heavy emphasis was on Burgundy. I highly respect jouurnalists llike you and Neal but VINOUS and WA have clearly other priorities

SINCERELY JOHAN

I’m sorry Johan, but given that Neal and I at Vinous and TWA respectively publish as many Burgundy reviews as Allen, for example, I fail to understand how—apparently because we happen to have colleagues that cover other regions?—we are less “specialized”? Speaking personally, I spend six months a year in Burgundy, soon to be all the year, and review over 4,000 Burgundies per year. Just this year, I’ve published 1,700 reviews of the 2019 vintage, a historic retrospective of the 1980 vintage, reviews of 2018s from bottle, almost 100 reviews of older wines back to 1919, the vertical with Duroché to which you allude, over 300 reviews of wines from less famous regions such as the Chalonnaise, Hautes-Côtes (including several producers never reviewed before, including new domaines), and a vertical with Dureuil Janthial back to Vincent’s first vintage. In the coming weeks, I have reports on Chablis, the Mâconnais and Beaujolais, as well as vertical with Thomas Bouley, Jean-Marc Vincent and Bruno Lorenzon. Later this year, we’ll have a vertical of Lamy’s Haut Denisté wines and of Leroy’s Beaux Monts.

Am I to understand that, because my colleagues happen to review other regions, that this does not constitute in depth or specialist Burgundy coverage?

The reality of publishing on a weekly basis is that the articles you might want to read do not always stay on the homepage for very long, but there is not an obvious solution to that. The solution is to dig just a bit deeper into the site.

[R_Frankel]

I agree with William completely. It’s odd, or at least inattentive to the facts, to complain that Vinous and WA lack Burgundy content. The fact that many other regions are covered does not diminish the quantity or quality of the Burgundy content. I subscribe to both (as well as Burghound) and find all three of similar depth. Different points of view but all are serious, thoughtful and helpful to the explorer of this region.

My only beef with WA (and utterly fixable) is that the site is extremely challenging to navigate for anything other than individual wine reviews. I find the vintage overviews, vertical/producer deep dives, and producer analyses to be fascinating and as important as the individual wine reviews. But, they are really hard to find. Vinous’ article index, imperfect as it is, at least gives a path to find this kind of material. There’s always room for improvement in web site navigation. But perhaps the challenge of finding the content leads some to believe it isn’t there.

[alan_weinberg]

Dear William,

I pay lots of money to get hold of the subscription like VINOUS or BURGHOUND or Wine Advocate. I had all three. I subscribed because I wanted to find notes on what interests me (BURGUNDY that is). You yourself published a vertical on DUROCHE’s Latricières recently. It is such articles I want to see on a more regular basis (apart from the annual review on the recent vintage) in an expensive magazine. I also expect to find everything I look for in the issue as it is thrown on line. As Neal Martin did when he wrote excellent verticals on LA ROMANEE and ROUMIER’s MUSIGNY. That was last year. This year I am still waiting for anything similar . It is obvious to me that VINOUS by writing on basically every wine that can be found (an exaggeration of course) tries to attract more readers. Clive Coates also published a “general” issue with lots of regions covered but heavy emphasis was on Burgundy. I highly respect jouurnalists llike you and Neal but VINOUS and WA have clearly other priorities

SINCERELY JOHAN

I’m sorry Johan, but given that Neal and I at Vinous and TWA respectively publish as many Burgundy reviews as Allen, for example, I fail to understand how—apparently because we happen to have colleagues that cover other regions?—we are less “specialized”? Speaking personally, I spend six months a year in Burgundy, soon to be all the year, and review over 4,000 Burgundies per year. Just this year, I’ve published 1,700 reviews of the 2019 vintage, a historic retrospective of the 1980 vintage, reviews of 2018s from bottle, almost 100 reviews of older wines back to 1919, the vertical with Duroché to which you allude, over 300 reviews of wines from less famous regions such as the Chalonnaise, Hautes-Côtes (including several producers never reviewed before, including new domaines), and a vertical with Dureuil Janthial back to Vincent’s first vintage. In the coming weeks, I have reports on Chablis, the Mâconnais and Beaujolais, as well as vertical with Thomas Bouley, Jean-Marc Vincent and Bruno Lorenzon. Later this year, we’ll have a vertical of Lamy’s Haut Denisté wines and of Leroy’s Beaux Monts.

Am I to understand that, because my colleagues happen to review other regions, that this does not constitute in depth or specialist Burgundy coverage?

The reality of publishing on a weekly basis is that the articles you might want to read do not always stay on the homepage for very long, but there is not an obvious solution to that. The solution is to dig just a bit deeper into the site.

I’ll be first to subscribe when you start your eponymous Burg publication. Tie it in w your videos and you have a real winner.