Critics Episodes

With ~2M monthly sessions on their newly unified commerce and media website, Wine Enthusiast continues to be a beacon for the wine industry. Jacki Strum, President of Wine Enthusiast Media, details their new wine review platform and global wine travel directory, democratizing access to wine and wine experiences globally. These initiatives help bring more people into the world of wine, including the younger generations, a critical part of building a vibrant wine industry. Detailed Show Note...

Accidentally filling the big shoes of Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier, Jane Anson, wine critic, author of Inside Bordeaux, founder of janeanson.com, and former Bordeaux correspondent for Decanter for nearly 20 years, is one of the world's foremost experts on the wines, history, and region of Bordeaux. Having lived in Bordeaux since 2003, Jane shares her deep insights into how Bordeaux became as famous as it is, how the systems of La Place de Bordeaux and En Primeur work, and the complex te...

Doug Frost, MW, MS, describes the history, value, drawbacks, and key success factors of wine competitions.

Robert and Peter reflect on how the wine industry has changed, the major themes that have popped up in the show, and some of the lessons they have learned in the process.

Accidentally filling the big shoes of Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier, Jane Anson, wine critic, author of Inside Bordeaux, founder of janeanson.com, and former Bordeaux correspondent for Decanter for nearly 20 years, is one of the world’s foremost e

Library Release: Originally aired as Episode 5 in June of 2020. In one of our original episodes, Robert and Peter discuss how competitive the wine market is, how wine scores used to differentiate wines from each other, but do that less today, and the us

Becoming a wine critic sounds like a dream for many. However, even though the cost and effort of setting up a website and putting out information have declined dramatically, doing the work of becoming a professional is no easy task - the time and effort i

Esther Mobley, Wine Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, thought writing would be more of a passion than a career. Yet, she’s one of two full-time wine writers for newspapers in the US. Esther discusses how being at a newspaper differs from a wine ma

The retirement of Robert Parker marked a major change in the role of the wine critic that had been building over time.  William Kelley, Reviewer of Burgundy, Champagne, English Sparkling, and Madeira for The Wine Advocate (“TWA”), gives us his thoughts on

Growing up around wine has not dimmed the passion Jacki Strum brings to her work as President of Wine Enthusiast Media. In the first of a series on the evolution of the wine critic, Jacki tells us about how Wine Enthusiast has expanded its platform from

Natalie MacLean, a podcaster and writer based in Ottawa, Canada, has been bringing people into her wine world for over 20 years. With two books, a newsletter with over 300,000 subscribers, a mobile app, and the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, Natalie’s main

In this episode, host Robert Vernick and co-host Peter Yeung begin a multi-part series about how wineries can stand out from the crowd. This first episode will focus on how to use and leverage wine scores. Hear Robert and Peter’s thoughts about the impact