I received the following email from Stephen Eliot, Editor and Publisher of Connoisseurs’ Guide today announcing that due to health reasons he is putting the publication on hold for an indeterminate time. I know Stephen from being a frequent guest at Charlie Olken’s house in Alameda for their regular tasting flights when I was in retail, He and I would often get into intense discussions about what we found in a wine, rarely in agreement. As he mentions CGCW has been around for 5 decades. I was always reminded of that when using the guest bathroom at Charlie’s as it had a newspaper clipping with a picture of him at a tasting dated in 1974. I wish Stephen the best in whatever he is going through. The publication did serious tastings and their approach elevated the standard of independent review of wines for half a century.
January 31, 2023
Dear Connoisseurs’ Guide Reader—
It is with great sadness that the time has come to let you know that Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine will be pausing publication for an as-yet-indeterminate time. Most of you have been aware that over the past year, each issue has been appearing later and later in the month. The reason has been no lack of effort but is instead due to health issues that can no longer be ignored and must now be addressed. We simply do not know when, if and in what form the Guide may reappear, but know that the forty-eight-year experience of reviewing wines under the Connoisseurs’ Guide banner has been nothing less than a pure joy for us and an enterprise the success of which has been entirely due to you, our treasured readers.
With a bit of time and good luck, the CGCW experience may yet continue, but a hiatus is in order. We will not be accepting new subscriptions or renewals at this time as we cannot guarantee what might lie ahead, but, in the meantime, if you are receiving this letter, you will continue to have access to the CGCW website, database and back issue which will remain functional through the first quarter of this year. In addition, we will be happy to email pdf copies of any back issues from the past 11 years upon request.
It has been an altogether remarkable five-decade run for us and, while we are not yet ready to say that it has come to an end, we regret that the future is far from certain and that nothing, not even Connoisseurs’ Guide, is forever. We cannot thank you enough for what has been a long and deeply satisfying journey. Rest assured that we will let you know what might be next in the months ahead, and, again, know that you have our undying thanks for permitting us to have done what we most enjoy.
Stephen Eliot
Editor and Publisher
Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine
Yes. The books (and the publication) were a solid resource for me when I entered the business (mopping floors) in 1990 especially in combination with reading ‘Angel Visits’. I drank a lot of Ridge and Ravenswood then and CGCW was pretty much the authority on Zinfandel then.
Yup…when CCtoCalifWine first published in the mid-'70’s, under CharlieOlken & EarlSinger, who were co-workers at Dept. of Commerce, it was an invaluable resource. The CC was much different then. It had a lot of information on new Calif wineries & was very educational. The new wineries, like MontereyPenninsula, I learned about was legendary. I still have those original Newsletters & they are very interesting read.
I musta subscribed for over 10 yrs. But it slowly morked into nothing but TN’s, not at all educational or informative, & I eventually let my subscription lapse, but not after complaining bloody hell to Charlie.
I assume he’s still involved but haven’t seen him for probably 10-15 yrs.
Tom
Sorry to see this … As someone living in the SF bay area in the 70s, CGCW and Robert Finigan were two go-to publications/reviewers I read looking forward to each new issue. I learned about the “3 puffs” long before I’d heard of one Robert Parker …
Sorry to hear this - as a retailer in the 1980s (late 70s), I hung on every word (and puff). If a wine got “one puff” it was worth the effort to find - “two puffs” and you just HAD to have it - and “three puffs” was like getting a 100 point score back then. I got turned on to so many wineries through CGCW.