This strikes me as great for Antonio and Steve, but I personally lament that it seems Steve will not be reviewing Barolo and Barbaresco any longer. I value both of their assessments of these wines and hate to lose one. It seems smart to me that for wines with strong reader interest–such as is the case with the top 30 or so 2010 Barolos–that they would both taste the wines in bottle and publish dual reviews.
I like the merger, but it’ll be a big loss for me if Ian and Steve don’t cover Bdx anymore. I’m not sure Antonio’s Bdx reviews mean much to me.
Big fan of Josh, glad he is largely staying put.
Smart from a public information perspective but maybe not from a business perspective.
+1
Maybe Steve is trying to slow down?
American Airlines was vastly larger than US Airways. The surviving entity in a merger is not always the larger of the two (and make no mistake; the surviving entity in the US/AA merger was US, notwithstanding the name)
i’m impressed. i haven’t subscribed to anything in a while (i think my BH subscription lapsed in 2010 or so). this seems like a great one-stop shop.
congrats to all involved.
Congrats to Steve and the IWC team – probably a good business decision for them and their families. In this business there is value in scale – bigger really is better.
I’m pretty worried about losing Tanzer’s analysis of Bordeaux though – I have a lot of faith in his reviews and less in Vinous’ … time will tell.
Will Vinous have an affiliation with Wine Access as IWC did? Nothing in the email or FAQs page about that.
The reason may be that the Vinous website looks a little more modern and up to date than the IWC website, which is pretty 1995, and that Vinous was thought to be the better plattform for the joint site. Who knows who the people with the money are in this project and who has how many shares…
Interesting. A thread on the Parker board on this, to which Parker responded “Kudos for AG…seems like a sharp move on his part.”
A brilliant piece of strategy, wtg Antonio ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
This is mostly about financials (and somewhat about business strategy and focus), not about subscriber numbers or web site design. AG has shown himself to be the more aggressive/astute business person. Very likely he (and team) had more money, have put more effort into building financial resources, or perhaps just designed their financial structures so that it made acquisition or other growth efforts more possible. Or maybe the IWC crew just focused on content and wine, and never really focused on the business side of things.
As these are both private companies, we’ll probably never know the financial details of the transaction. We’ll have to wait until one of the principals in the deal writes a tell-all memoir 
.
+1
Tanzer gave up Bordeaux to Ian after the 2010 vintage.
I think Tanzer’s pending retirement must be a factor here. It would be interesting to know of Tanzer acquired a significant share of Vinous.
There’s a new king in town. Though I share the disappointment that Tanzer won’t be covering Bordeaux anymore, I didn’t even know Galloni was doing Bordeaux reviews himself (I’ve never seen one in an email blast or on a website).
Maybe Steve was doing something similar to what Parker did with the WA, cashing out when he got a good offer. He remains involved, but he gets a payday now and some security for future retirement, etc. I think this is a smart play and positions Vinous very well.
Wow. This is huge news. With Tanzer and Galloni joining forces - how can TWA compete? It is going to make Vinous the no-brainer, go to source for those seeking wine reviews.
Well, it seems as though Tanzer’s purview will narrow in the aftermath of this takeover. Maybe it’s the business ambition of someone like AG that doesn’t mix perfectly with my own somewhat naive notion of an independent critical voice. But it always seemed out of Tanzer’s professional character - or even temperament? - to establish personal relationships with the wineries and the winemakers he reviewed. Perhaps it’s unfair, but I don’t feel I can easily assume the same inhibitions/boundaries in the case of Parker, for instance, or from a world-beater like AG. With that said, it’s easy to look forward to the incredible content, both critical and educational,that Vinous will provide going forward. Probably a subscription for me.
PRO: Tanzer’s coverage of these regions could increase my interest.
CON: There is not a region in Tanzer’s new portfolio that I am actively interested in except white Burgundy. Clearly, Burgundy is the top responsibility and I look forward to Steve’s reviews of the white wines, but I there are only 3-4 red burgs in my cellar, zero from Washington, Argentina and South Africa, and only a few whites from New Zealand. I have 3 cases of maturing port and that is probably enough to last me for decades and Tokaji (as much as I love the sweet stuff) is getting expensive and has always been hard to find in the US market.
Seems like Antonio is hogging the good stuff, especially when you’ve a taster of Tanzer’s stature and experience on the team. I wonder if there is more to the story, perhaps Tanzer is bored with the usual suspects and/or knows his days are numbered before retirement so this shift now will ease the transition later?
+1. With something as subjective as wine criticism, I value having more than one professional opinion that is roughly aligned with my palate. For Piedmont, Galloni and Tanzer have been my go-to sources. Tanzer is often less exuberant than Galloni (e.g. 2006 Brovia, 2008 B Mascarello, 2006 G Rinaldi), so when they agree, the signal is informative (e.g. 2010 Brovia, 2006 B Mascarello, 2008 G Rinaldi). From this perspective, the merger is a loss - I would have preferred to pay for a separate IWC subscription to have Tanzer’s Piedmont reviews. Shrewd business move though.