Can We Trust The Wine Media?

Rules for building trust in the small liquid-y corner of the media

I shouldn’t care about this sort of thing because I know better. Nonetheless, something in me sort of snapped this morning when, as I was cheerily browsing through my wine news, I came across a story that, three paragraphs in, had this to say:

“Wine can last a while if it's unopened. According to Medical News Today, white wine and rosé last anywhere between one and two years past the expiration date on the bottle, with red wine lasting two to three years. Sparkling wine you might buy at the grocery store lasts three to four years. Thinking of unopened wine might take your mind to that massive wine collection Annie and Hallie's dad had in "The Parent Trap" and the fact that some wines were there for decades. A wine that can last decades before going bad is called fortified or vintage wine. Vintage sparkling wine lasts from five to 10 years.”

The headline of the story is: Here's How To Tell If That Bottle Of Wine In Your Fridge Is Actually Bad.

My first thought was, this is why you don’t let people who appear to have never looked over a bottle of wine, write about wine for an audience of more than one.

But then I started to think about “trust”. Specifically, trust in the media.