84-Kermit Lynch. He actually did change the way “serious” (for lack of a better word) wine was retailed in the U.S. Then take into account his book. There is no doubt in my mind that many took inspiration from Lynch in terms of 1) seeking out new wine to drink 2) provided a model for the way people write about wine 3) compelled, forced, influenced retailers and importers in the way they cared for their product in transit and how they talked about it as food rather than drink.
83-Paul Hart. If you build up an auction house to #1 by holding high standards while a lot of your competition is debasing the process, well that certainly has influenced the market, I’d think.
I guess the list is what it is, and “they” say, but after looking through it, I want my time back. I just don’t care very much when a list about influential wine people includes only a small handful of people who actually create wine. Phillipe Melka, Heidi Barrett, Morgan Twain Peterson, and a bunch of people like that (most of whom are at the bottom of the list) are the people that I care about.
Clark Smith and Gregory Jones (both of whom I know nothing about) are more interesting to me than 50 business bigwigs and self-appointed experts. The latter may be influential, but I don’t care.
Considering the outsize influence the TTB, the three tier system (more like five tier when considering imports), the taxing authority and the state legislators have on every drop of wine consumed in this country (even Mouton Rothschild guzzled from magnums on Lexington Ave), the list should probably be made up of 75 suits nobody has heard of and 25 others.
I didn’t read all of the names. A lot depends on how they define “influential”. Some people like Kermit had a huge influence and may even be responsible for some of those others even being on the list, but aren’t as important these days. Ditto Parker. Alice has pretty much no influence - who buys based on her suggestions and more importantly, what producers are trying to make wine to garner praise from her, like they did for Parker? What is the influence of guys like Evan Goldstein? No problem with the guy, but how many bottles is he moving and how many people are trending to or from something because of him?
I think the corporate guys actually do have a large influence on the wine as they control what’s available.
Not sure what Parker is even on the list. Isn’t he retired? Hasn’t posted anything publicly in well over a year. No official word from Wine Advocate either.
I mean this in all seriousness, Todd French belongs on that list. The tidal wave that can come from a post about a new wine is rather stunning. I know people who think they are in the know and have zero clue what Beta is. Think about all the good that threads like Premier Cru and Rudy K (and how often they get referenced in news articles!), and those ACTUALLY changed the wine world, not made it more swampy like some of the people listed near the top.
And here’s a WTF omission- Neal Rosenthal. I mean, COME ON!
Daniel Johnnes?
The entire cast of Somm?
OK, so I’m rambling and annoyed, but you get my point.
Hey, Costco and Walgreen’s get big billing 1 and 3…but nothing for the dear old PLCB? 2.53 billion in alcohol sales (2016 - 2017) isn’t worth a nod to our chairman and former US congressman - Tim Holden?
What about Maureen Downey??? I guess the author couldn’t put both John friggin’ Kapon on that list AND the person credited with exposing the most fraud in the marketplace. The author went for the fraud-peddler instead.
You are thinking about relevance to the small slice of pie that you mill around with here on wineberserkers who are nearly all either wine experts of some sort or believe themselves to be wine experts of some sort. I think that Suckling brilliantly decided to whore himself out to producers and to lavish massive scores on nearly everything. The result is that nearly every major wine retailer now cites to HIS scores, which drives consumer purchasing. The Italian and likely Napa wine producers undoubtedly love him and the 97-99 point scores he ejaculates on every moderately expensive bottle of wine he suckles. Say what you want about this penchant for granting even a peon a prince’s score, but he moves consumer markets and has demanded the attention of every major retailer in the United States and online.
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