A Challenge to the Wine Media Are Those Other States' Wines

The challenge for wineries outside CA, OR, WA, VA and NY just got bigger

The venerable Wine Enthusiast Magazine recently announced it would only be reviewing domestic wines made in California, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and New York. Put another way, the publication’s regional correspondents and reviewers will no longer be reviewing wines from producers in Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Maryland, New Jersey and every other state outside the major five.

The Wine Enthusiast announced their changes this way:

Removed Beats:
The following regions will no longer be tasted by Wine Enthusiast: Other U.S. (States outside of CA, WA, OR, NY, VA

This decision is certainly not a commentary on the Enthusiast editors’ and publisher’s view of the quality of wine from states outside the remaining five. It most certainly is a business decision linked to bandwidth on the one hand and consumer interest on the other. If you simply can’t justify the expense of hiring the palates necessary to taste all the wines submitted for review, then some rational basis for reducing wines submitted is a necessity.

There are other options besides geography for reducing the number of wines submitted. The Enthusiast could have announced, “no more wines under $20 will be reviewed.” But far more folks are interested in $20 and under wines than they are the wines from the states now not reviewed. The other option would have been to say “no” to wines produced from particular varieties such as Zinfandel or Vignole or Norton. But this probably would not have lowered the submissions quite enough.

Geography is probably the best way to go if the idea was to serve readers’ interests best they can as well as reduce the number of wines submitted.