Let’s bring out the old guard on this thread, and go through the entire history of wine forums/wine discussion groups, and social networking. I know a few of the original online wine geeks are here (Mark H, Bob Foster, Ron Kramer, Adam Lee, etc), going way back to Compuserve text-based discussions on 300baud modems.
I think it would behoove ALL those who find Wine Berserkers to see the decades of wine networking online, with stories from those who lived through it.
(Please note: there will be opinions on this thread that likely will come across as negative, i.e. ‘bashing’ of one or more professional wine critic and/or forum owner/administrator. If that offends you, I suggest you don’t read on. I’d rather this be a truly open conversation and historical outline of the history of wine online, and that may include opinions from those who post that may or may not coincide with your own)
Don’t forget the old AOL forum, it was pretty lively.
My favorite tale of old was when, on E-Bob, a member had just returned from Sicily and posted how he LOVED the traditional wines he tasted having been previously turned off by Planeta and a few other Ausso-Sicilian wines. Several of the resident Italophiles chimed in and recommended some of the bottlings he could find in the US.
Squires came in guns blazing telling everyone those wines sucked, Nero d’Avola had severe quality limitations, ect. The thread went on for pages and pages as he dug a deeper hole for himself. It was both funny and sad…
Parker was the resident wine expert back on the Prodigy board which I think predated other services… His id was “Expert42b” He posted almost daily (I guess he is the first wine blogger) Squires was but a poster in those days but quickly became a brown nosing fan of Parker.
Parker and I had MANY heated arguments. My favorite was the discussion over Brett. He just didn’t get it (still doesn’t) I asked him to name a single California wine he had EVER had, that had too much Brett. Instead he named a 1957 Rhone. When pushed he admitted he couldn’t name one and gave me permission to “gloat.” I told him it was not about gloating it was trying to show him the limits of his palate.
The first off line was held by the Prodigy folks. The terms TN and ITB were born in that era.
Parker would be oh so civil in most of his public postings but I got many VERY nasty personal messages from him. He truly sees the world in black and white–if you aren’t a supporter you are an enemy. More on this in the book The Emperor of Wine.
We created a Parker Hall of Shame and Fame and whenever he did something outrageous we chronicled it there. He wasn’t happy about that.
I was as you say I was ’ an original’ Those were teeth cutting days that actually got me to use computers dispute having sold systems for years. Early on I and Diane Lampkin were the then Moderators (Mem-Reps) We were give a secret 800# should anyone seem suicidal or made a threat to the President, no shit!
We all get older but Bob and I as well as Lew and others grew up in this social medium. Over time I had met and made more friends then I had at schools, in neighborhoods. child-rearing and professionally.
Some of the most memorable wine experiences were the OL’s and nights at a wine storage facility in Woodland Hills called the Wine Box owned by still good friend Steve Ein. This hobby’ fosters generosity beyond the pale. I think I have met and or dined with some 200 wine folks who were a higher percentage of ‘top notch’ then the general population.
And lastly as this night is Yahrzeit (anniversary of my wife’s Shirley’s death) the remembrance of the condolences and donations of $5700 to the Ronald McDonald House in her name that came in from those who knew me mostly only through this wine community.
I stumbled into the Parker boards back in 2003, as I was starting my online wine education. Before that it was the WSJ and Wine Spectator. My Prodigy days were travel related.
Let’s not forget the very opinionated, and oftentimes correct, Daniel Posner.
Curse you. I just lost an hour reading twenty year old post on alt.food.wine and rec.food.beverage. It’s somewhat humbling to realize that we have been discussing Parker’s influence and resteraunt wine price over and over for 20 years. Gotta love the Internet.
I date from the Prodigy days, as Ron Kramer mentioned above. I’ve forgotten the details of how that forum morphed into the Mark Squires board, which later became to be hosted by eRP.com. Many memorable battles from the early days. Dude named Robert Callahan (sp?) was one of the first chronic Parker-baiters. He hated Parker, and I’m sure the feeling was mutual, although RP was much more dignified and diplomatic in his posts than was Callahan.
It was pretty easy to trap Callahan in his own illogical statements. He often painted himself into a corner, couldn’t get out, and would just sulk off and disappear for a while.
Oddly, the 100% Euro-centric Callahan pushed the somewhat Euro-centric Parker into frequently defending California wine. At one point, Parker challenged Callahan to a blind tasting of French and California wine, with the sole measurement being to identify the country of origin. This lead to an offline, and there were maybe 10 or 12 members present (I was not one of them). As it turned out, the Cal-trashing Callahan could not tell where the wines were from, and many that he identified as his favorites turned out to be US domestic wines.
(In this tasting, Parker played a cruel trick on Callahan, but without doubt the dude deserved it.)
For a time (call it 1999 to 2003ish), there seemed to be three boards that all had a fair amount of traffic
WCWN
Mark Squires board
WLDG (Robin Garr’s board)
and then…
WLDG changed to something on Netscape (I’d love to hear what happened here but if involves any poster here maybe it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie)
Parker got involved with the Squires board
WCWN was drained by the black hole of wine boards, eBob
I started with the old AOL wine board as hncjc. I remember #1 being overwhelmed by some of the wines people drank, esp. this one guy named Burghound. Then, I guess I went through the normal progression of boards - Robin Garr, Squires, Parker and here. The best thing of Squires/Parker was the concept of offlines. Through a couple of blind offlines, I was led to my current wine group and to making friends all over the world. And, that’s what this is really all about.
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I was there and was responsible for getting/forcing Callahan to accept because I called his boss, at Garnet, and told him of Parkers challenge and Callahan’s demur.
What followed was precious. It was held at a private club completely at Bob’s expense, except our travel, although he paid RC’s expenses. RC arrived pale saying he was ill (scared). Previously RC had posted that Beax Frere was vile or some sort. Packer indicted he wouldn’t inflict him with tasting it again but slipped into a later flight upon which RC picked it as best of. Jim the fireman got 23/24 wines right our Harmon Skurnik, I think, aced it. RC about halved it.
This was good for at least two months of follow up laughter on the various boards.
I missed the early days but started out with alt.food.wine. WCWN was the first non-usenet forum I participated in, and I still participate despite the decreased activity there. Made a lot of friends there. I also participated on Vinocellar for awhile but the discussions there weren’t of much interest to me (lots of “what are you buying” / “what do you have on order” threads). I never got into Robin Garr’s board because the user interface was so frustratingly screwy back in the old days (I know that it’s much better now).
I joined eBob but had issues with Squires from the start, when he accused me of not signing up with a real name - “Zinns” has to be some kind of a fake wine name, right? I enjoyed many of the discussions there but was threatened with being kicked off the board more than once over minor and inadvertent transgressions of the rules. Like many here, I can’t say that I miss the heavy-handed moderation on that board.
I remember a woman who posted on alt.food.wine - she posted as “Rosaphila” - who was somehow affiliated with a Mendocino winery. She was sort of the John Z of alt.food.wine in those days. Anyone else here remember her?
I made my first wine-related post on the CompuServe Wine Forum in 1986. That forum was started in 1984 by a guy named Jim Kronman, and a year later he added a guy named Robin Garr as a SysOp (the original name for admin). I’m almost positive it was the first wine-related forum, and it’s where the term “TN” for Tasting Note originated.
I joined Prodigy in 1989 to take a look at what was there, and what I saw was a place where people argued about wine. I preferred discussions to arguments and never bothered to post there. I remember that a large chunk of the Prodigy wine board membership left in a mass exodus in the early '90s, and I was told it had something to do with Mark Squires. Several of those people wound up on CompuServe, including JPB (wasn’t it you who coined the term “ITB”?).
Robin Garr’s WLDG was the first web-based discussion board, started I believe in 1994, but it didn’t become active until AOL bought CompuServe four years later and basically killed the service.
Mel, here’s one possible reason for WLDG’s ill-fated move to Netscape/AOL. Robin Garr and Jim Kronman had a falling out, and Robin moving WLDG to Netscape resulted in AOL deleting the original CompuServe Wine Forum.
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Jim the fireman got 23/24 wines right our Harmon Skurnik, I think, aced it. RC about halved it.
I enjoyed many of the discussions there but was threatened with being kicked off the board more than once over minor and inadvertent transgressions of the rules. Like many here, I can’t say that I miss the heavy-handed moderation on that board.