Today wine lovers world-wide rejoice at the retirement of Dan Kravitz.
For almost half a century, Kravitz has been responsible for flogging vast quantities of putrid swill he identified as ‘wine’ to naive consumers. His victims number in the millions. Most were novice wine drinkers with little or no experience, who simply drank what was put in front of them. More knowledgeable wine lovers were often swindled by laudatory reviews Kravitz somehow wheedled from otherwise reputable journalists.
Without conscience, Kravitz would seek out the cheapest wines, provenance unverifiable, and aggressively push them into the market, hoping for the occasional positive comment, then using that to cement the reputation of essentially undrinkable beverages that might or might not have been made from grapes.
Kravitz also represented a number of Estate wineries, individually, family or cooperatively owned. These producers of fine and great wines were shamelessly utilized by Kravitz to give a veneer of respectability to the ‘wines’ he personally selected and blended.
Amazingly, Kravitz was only once charged with a wine-related crime, for falsifying a Federal Label Approval. He pled guilty and was punished with a slap on the wrist, ridiculously excessive for a totally victimless ‘crime’.
In 2007 Kravitz bought a vineyard in Maury (Roussillon) and founded a wine Estate, Domaine Cabirau. Because he had nothing to do with the Estate, other than writing checks that did not bounce to the talented people who did the work, the wines, grown on superb terroir, are actually potable.
Kravitz plans to spend his ill-earned retirement pontificating and meddling in multiple areas where he has absolutely no credentials or expertise (linguistics, literature, politics, food, and especially wine).
