Winedoctor Ethics

The issue of ethics remains an active one in wine writing. The relationships between wine writers or critics and those who make the wine can be opaque to all except the two parties involved.

It seems widely accepted among wine consumers that some wine publications favour reviewing the wines of those who advertise in their publication, or at the very least subscribe to it, essentially a form of ‘pay to play’. The actions of some publications can leave the subscriber wondering exactly who the critic is writing for – which can leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Of course, there are no advertisements on Winedoctor, it being funded solely by subscribers, obviating ethical concerns like those mentioned above. Nevertheless, like many writers and critics I maintain close relationships with many winemakers. With this in mind I thought I would provide transparency on my tasting practices, both here on Winedoctor and with other publications.

The two main areas of interest are Bordeaux and the Loire, and it makes sense to look at each region separately.

Bordeaux

For Bordeaux I add several thousand new tasting notes each year. The vast majority of these are encountered as samples poured in Bordeaux; I travel to the region, covering the costs of travel myself, for the primeurs in April/May, and to retaste the wines after bottling, in December/January. I may make additional tasting trips for ‘deeper dives’, for vertical tastings at châteaux or tastings of newly released wines. Other tastings which may feed into my Bordeaux reviews include the biennial Association des Grands Crus Classés de St Emilion tasting, the annual Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc tasting, the annual Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting and the annual Ten Years On tasting hosted by Bordeaux Index, all in London. Again I cover all costs of travel myself. I will taste every wine possible and do not favour the wines of any particular producer. Nobody pays to have their wines reviewed.

When I am in Bordeaux some châteaux offer support through accommodation or dinner, and this is always disclosed at the foot of the appropriate report.

I receive a tiny number of Bordeaux samples throughout the year (as of 2022 this is once again the state of play, although during the Covid-19 pandemic like many critics I was swamped with samples). All are tasted, and the majority (because there are so few) reviewed on Winedoctor, the notes slotted into relevant vintage reports, or a Weekend Wine slot. No payment is taken for reviewing samples in this manner. A subscription to Winedoctor is not required in order to submit samples.

Many older Bordeaux wines I review, typically in reports of wines aged more than ten years, or individual wines in my Weekend Wine slot, have been pulled from my own cellar, and purchased by me, sometimes decades ago. Reports on very old vintages are often a cobbling together of tasting notes from dinners in Bordeaux, principally with the Académie du Vin de Bordeaux and with Olivier Bernard. In such cases I add comments on the sources of the wines to the article.

Loire Valley

For the Loire Valley, I add over a thousand tasting notes each year, and as with Bordeaux the vast majority are poured as samples when I visit the region. This might be when attending the salons, including the Salon des Vins de Loire and Salon Saint-Jean (in Angers), La Dive Bouteille (in Saumur) or at Wine Paris (no prizes for guessing where) each February/March, or when staying and visiting in the region, typically in February, in May/June, sometimes in August and always in September/October each year. The travel and accommodation costs associated with these trips are met by me; thinking back over two decades of reporting on this region I can think of less than a handful of occasions when I received assistance in the form of accommodation or a meal, and this has always been declared on the appropriate report. Again, nobody pays to have their wines reviewed.

The number of Loire samples received at home is even fewer than those from Bordeaux. The majority will be reported on. No payment is taken for reviewing samples in this manner. A subscription to Winedoctor is not required in order to submit samples. I also report on many Loire wines at ten, fifteen years of age and beyond, and these are all pulled from my own cellar, having been purchased by me, sometimes many years or even more than a decade before.

In short, no moneys are taken for wine reviews. I fund the vast majority of my travel and accommodation myself –  thanks to my subscribers for that – and where I accept support, usually in the form of accommodation or dinner, it is disclosed.

Over the years I have taken on other wine reviewing roles where the arrangements might be different to those outlined above. In recent years, however, I have drawn these activities to a close, principally because of lack of time.

The only statement I deem necessary relates to Decanter, where I judged wines both as a member of a tasting panel for reports published in the monthly magazine (exclusively on the Loire), and as a judge for the Decanter World Wine Awards (mostly the Loire, sometimes Bordeaux). I have not participated in any of these tastings for many years. There was never any crossover between wines tasted for Decanter and for Winedoctor; in other words, no notes from these paid-for tastings ever appeared on Winedoctor.

I have not reviewed wines for any other publication.

If there is any element of this description of the way I work which requires further clarification, I invite you to contact me in order to address it. (19/8/23, updated 3/1/26)