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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The letter that Wine Spectator refused to publish?
When Nancy Bentley, co-owner of Kinkead Ridge winery in Ripley, Ohio, read a Wine Spectator piece about the cuisine of the west and midwest, she found it rather odd that the wines mentioned were ALL from the west, with nary mention of a single wine produced in the heartland. So she sat down and fired off a letter:
To the editors, Wine Spectator: I was very surprised that your World of Food issue appreciated food in the West and Midwest, but the wine section was relegated to Wines of the West only. Recently, a wine challenge similar to the famous Judgment of Paris, and judged by a master sommelier, among others, pitted Ohio wines against comparable European and California wines. Three of the Ohio wineries, including Kinkead Ridge, Ferrante and Busch-Harris bested their more expensive competitors, and six others were close in points. Tom Stevenson, British wine writer, has favorably recognized Midwest wineries in his 2006 Wine Report. As editor of the New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopeida, he says, “Virginia promises to be the East Coast’s Washington State, while Pennsylvania and Ohio are the dark horses.” West and East Coast myopia? Apparently a cure for myopia is the use of corrective lenses, or glasses. I suggest you bring your Reidels and taste what is happening with estate wineries in the Midwest!
Now, seems to me that this is a quite reasonable letter, well written, a nice turn of the phrase or two — in short, something readers might want to read in the Spectator’s letters column.
But alas, ‘twas not to be, apparently. Nancy received a reply from a Wine Spectator editorial assistant thanking her for writing, assuring her that her letter had been shared with the “editorial staff,” saying nothing about publication, and — here’s the best part — alerting her to the upcoming tastings articles, just in case she would like to submit her wines for review. The tastings schedule extends out to May of 2007 and mentions big feature stories in the works on South Africa, Austria, Germany, Chile, Greece, Champagne, Argentina, Burgundy, Rhone, Portugal, Alsace … you get the idea.
But nothing from middle America.
Following what had to be a slow burn and probably 11 drafts that were far more incendiary, Nancy wrote the following nice, calm, yet rather icy reply:
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a single category relevant to our geographic area, the midwest. This was precisely the point of my letter.
Hello. Wine Spectator? Is there anybody home?
Judging by this exchange, apparently not.
And Ohio wine producers will have to search for respect elsewhere, apparently.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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