I think that Jerome has a very good point. An illustration. The issue for discussion at the moment is alcohol levels in wine. Why this has become an issue I am not sure. What about Spirits? A wine writer researching this topic for a well known wine journal asked my opinion. I sent him a paper from a 11 country study undertaken by my former University and other collaborators to research wine attributes of which alcohol level was one. I sent the wine journalist a paper comparing results from Australia and France where the alcohol level attribute scored as last or next to last. The sample was split between take home and HoReCA and as you would expect the restaurant diners saw alcohol levels as an issue ( drink drive laws are a powerful demotivating attribute). This argument was not considered in the article as a balancing factor. It would appear that wine writers print what they believe rather than what is important to the wine consumer. Wine writers should be concerned with facts rather than what Jermone illudes to and that is to pander to the pander an oligarchy of vested interests, Robert is right - the growth of interest group pages and blogs are far more effective in both communicating and receiving feedback from the people who really matter in all of this the consumer. They have tuned out from wine journalists along time ago so much so that in my teaching I now concentrate on new media and the personal relationships that the consumer can develop with their " favourite" tipple.

As a fan of both Tims (Hanni & Atkin), I'd mischievously suggest that they're both somewhat missing the point. Critics - of books, films, restaurants, music, wines or whatever - are valuable when their comments ring a welcome bell with sufficient numbers of their audience. So Robert Parker's followers have shared his preference for opulent wines while Jancis Robinson's many US fans presumably find her recommendations more to their taste. Whether or not either of these critics is a "super" taster is not really the point, any more than whether Sylvestor Stallone is a better actor than Colin Firth. But to agree with Tony Spawton, the evidence internationally is that recommendations from established and well-respected critics like Parker, Atkin and Haliday have less effect on sales than they used to. Anecdotally, online chatter from bloggers and tweeters seems to be beginning to influence sales quite significantly. It remains to be seen how sustainable a trend this is going to be...

Wine writers are a dying breed as they have their own recession to cope with as their role becomes irrelevant. More attuned to being the wine paparazzi, the " poly - waffle in the pool journalism has contributed to a commodisation of the wine industry especially in the AOP where their damage has been close to tragic. Referred to in the trade as " Parkerisation" includes other writers more concerned with the long levity of their own brand as editors cull expensive condottiere of the campagnie de ventura. Machiavelli was worried - for the wine condottiere to be useful in a wine crisis - the wine sector better tremble as they stuffed up the boom times - so in a crisis what is their motive - a death wish. The UK press better look to the News of the world to criticize the dalliances of the premier league and leave wine alone.

Funny, we were talking about the same thing on this side of the pond last week. Check out the video of the "Virtual Vino" session at the Italian Trade Commission's big soiree in NY last week. Moderator was Anthony Dias Blue with a stellar panel (including me!) http://vino2010.italianmade.com/blog/video-virtual-vino-seminar. What was particularly funny was that Andy had been taken to task by bloggers for some nasty comments he made about the breed in his magazine. Details on the controversy are posted on my blog at http://thebrandactionteam.blogspot.com/

It's a joke to see what a super-natural drink wine has become. Wine critics serve a greedy, incompetent middleman (merchants) between producers and consumers. The most important thing in wine is who you drink it with.

Hi Olly - feel free to contact me directly - love to fill you in on what the reality of all this is. AND I will even share with you what I do! One of the really interesting thing with the internet is nobody even bothers to contact the SOURCE any more and things just wizz by and the story takes on a life of its own. Tim Atkin did not bother to get the context and talk with me. I invite you (and have invited him as well) to get the full story, not the Guardian headline that did not represent my, or the author's, true position. Hope you give me a shout!