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Michael Yurch's avatar

As a major retailer for many years (including a few before the era of scores arrived) I’ve certainly used high scores to sell wine.

I can remember in my early days at Sherry-Lehmann my old boss Sam Aaron lamenting that scoring would ruin the industry. After all, he wrote the S-L catalogue; if he said a wine was the best, who was around to contradict him?

Since leaving Sherry-Lehmann and opening my own importing company in 2013 I’ve certainly been treated to the darker side of wine journalism.

There is nothing like receiving a congratulatory email from a major publication praising a high score for a wine that I’ve submitted on behalf of a producer, accompanied by a rate sheet to insure that anyone ever sees the score in print.

The figure of $25,000 as a budget for scores on the part of an industry PR firm representing multiple producers or regions is all too believable, and it’s not surprising that a reputable outfit like Polaner (and many if not most others) feels forced into complying with an increasingly twisted system.

Michael Yurch

Bluest Sky Wines

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David Bowler's avatar

Great article! We were offered the same plan as Polaner but we declined. We were also asked to ask our winery partners to join. We have not done that either. I don't begrudge publications and writers needing to make money, but there must be a better model. But that model won't be able to emerge so long as pay to play is supported by people in our industry. Thank you for shining a light on this unethical (in my opinion) practice. Just subscribed!

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