And they will no longer be covering some of the small, striving regions that most people don’t pay attention to anyway, but those are precisely the regions that are the most interesting. Kind of a shame really. I got this a few days ago but didn’t read it.
Removed Beats
The following regions will no longer be tasted by Wine Enthusiast: Other U.S. (States outside of CA, WA, OR, NY, VA) and Other Europe/Asia (Bulgaria, Croatia, China, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland).
Michigan and Texas are both making interesting wine these days, and I’ve had some promising wines from Idaho and Colorado. Major league stuff? Not really, but neither were most regions of CA a few decades ago. As far as NJ goes, that’s a kind gesture towards whoever was sentenced to those wines.
And in Europe, there are ancient traditions in places like Croatia, Slovenia, Romania. These places have been ruined by wars and communism and only now are starting to turn out interesting wines and it’s kind of funny that a magazine calling itself and “Enthusiast” is really only enthusiastic about the biggest brands. They could have had a nice little niche covering places that everyone else overlooks, rather than try to cover the same places everyone else is covering with a group of people I’ve never heard of.
It’s very tough for any publication to cover all of the world’s wines and regions. Especially if they want to cover it in a thorough and thoughtful manner
There’s are certain wine regions that are almost de rigueur if one wants to remain a relevant publication for wine enthusiasts. While some more ‘obscure’ or lesser represented regions may be interesting to wine writers, at some point, given the resources one has, one needs to select what to cover and what to exclude.
Did they ever really cover those other regions with dedicated people? Sort of thread drift, but I got a WE in the mail the other day–Italy on the cover–and I was surprised at how decent a read it was. Not going for the geek crowd, but still a page on australian skin contact, piece on the italian influence on mendocino, explorers on lesser known italian grapes, beer trends. No real opinion on the ratings, but I’m so predisposed to thinking the content is going to be lame, I was pleasantly surprised that it was all kind of interesting and not dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Especially because every Wine Spectator cover story is like: This Pro Golfer Loves Napa Cab So Much He Makes It!
It’s kinda hard to get wound up at what they dropped. There are definitely nice wines from Michigan, but are we really losing out on it not being covered? I’m surprised that they decided to even keep Virginia in there.
No Croatia and Slovenia coverage does kinda suck, but I would also imagine that those two regions get put back in the fold when it’s financially more prudent for them. From what I’ve tasted from Romania and Bulgaria, yea, there’s no reason to cover those wines. Like, no reason at all.
The big news here is that some publication has ever dedicated resources to more than random coverage of regions like Virginia, Luxembourg, Morocco and Montenegro.
I know. You guys are right. And the print world is nothing great these days. But Dave mentioned an article on Australian skin contact whites - who is the audience for that? Probably the same wine geeks who would read about Slovenian wine!
Not that any of it really matters - I have a pile of magazines I haven’t opened yet, including a bunch of WEs and a few Spectators. Just don’t know where to go for an article about Moldova any more . . .
Knowing the humidity there in the summer would anyone want that assignment? Just got back from Walla Walla and it is so dry there had to drink 4 bottle waters a night to stay hydrated.
