Wine criticism

Spain's José Peñin has held the top critic's spot nationally for 45 years. Now he has taken the trade's euro, as it were, by throwing in his lot with Casa Gourmet, a member's wine and food club, where he will recommend wines. Will this affect his judgement? Only time will tell, as he will be expected to choose between wines available through the club and others sold in stores. A tough tightrope.

There is a hierarchy in wine criticism. The crème de la crème write for well-known international publications, or even have their own. Their names are known to every winemaker in the world in any language, and they are as feared as they are respected. The second tier consists of those who write as freelancers or have their own websites and blogs.

Then there are the also-rans. Some of these, mostly bloggers, attain notoriety for fairness, probably because they have nothing to fear from any vengeful wine producer who blacklists them – as often happens. The lowest-of-the-low go out and buy the wines they write about, thereby achieving ultimate impartiality, more credit to them.

When once-top critic Robert Parker cashed in for an alleged $10 million by selling his The Wine Advocate magazine to a group of Singapore-based investors active in the wine business, was it adiós to critical independence at a stroke?

Perhaps a better way of publishing useful recommendations to consumers is to evaluate wineries rather than individual labels. Producers can be judges by their styles of wine, and the way they make it.