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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Why I’m a ‘parasite,’ and why I was half-wrong about the Spectator
A roundup of tasty little news items and observations to titillate your Tuesday:
— Jancis Robinson thinks I’m a parasite — but admits she is, too. That’s what she told an audience at the WineCreator conference in Ronda, Spain, where she was serving as conference president, and her remarks were reported in this Decanter.com story entitled “Critics should show more humility”.
“We must always remember that we are parasites on the business of winemaking,” Robinson said, referring to wine critics and journalists.
I see her point, sure, but golly, “parasites?” Let me go suck down some more red-tinged juice from my host while I contemplate my new title …
— Last week, I gave Wine Spectator magazine a cautious pat on the back for what appeared to be some welcome changes to its policies toward advertorials. Well, I might have been juuuuuust a tad premature — but just a tad.
The advertorials for wineeveryday.com are back in Wine Spectator’s May 31 “Burgundy” issue (page 32-33) that arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and the ad’s font and typeface and design have changed only slightly, meaning the ad, to my eyes, still appears to be designed to dupe readers into believing it is an unbiased story written by the Spectator’s editorial staff.
But the magazine did place the word “advertisement” atop the first of the ad’s two pages. That one small-but-important little word did not appear in a similar advertorial by the same company in the April 30 edition of the magazine. That change represents a step in the right direction toward ensuring casual readers are not deceived by an ad that appears to be disguised as editorial content. The Spectator could have done more — so too could other print publications such as food magazines and yes, newspapers — but it did take an important step in the right direction.
— Suburban Cincinnati winery Vinoklet has launched its very own wine blog. So far, the blog appears to be a vehicle for the winery’s press releases, but hey, who am I to decide what does and does not constitute a blog?
I am simply a parasite on the business of winemaking, remember?
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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