When I came into the wine industry 20 years ago, my impression was that, politically, it was broadly right-leaning. Certainly the upper echelons of the UK’s fine-wine fraternity were the domain of a private-school-educated establishment whose natural habitat was the drawing rooms of St James’ gentlemen’s clubs, where diversity meant serving Burgundy rather than Bordeaux at luncheon.
Joining Decanter magazine, I was faced by a wall of conservatism – with both a big and small ‘c’. The first three faces in the magazine were older, white men, in the form of columnists Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier. One wonderful writer and two wonderful bon viveurs, but not exactly challenging the readership with a plurality of perspectives. At home, Broadbent drank Berry Bros’ Ordinary Claret most nights of the week, and Bordeaux was the benchmark for all three of them.
It was a similar scene in the US where Wine Spectator was home to an equally diverse cabal of contributors in James Suckling, Matt Kramer, Harvey Steiman and Jim Laube. The magazine was in thrall to the big money, big power and big reds that tallied with both the brash, blockbuster, ‘bigger-is-better’ vibe of early 2000s Napa Valley and the country’s then ruling Republican party. The magazine’s deference to the infallibility of its critics and its disdainful dismissal of alternative views makes sense when seen through the lens of its owner and overlord Marvin Shanken, since revealed as a donor to Donald Trump’s bullish brand of political tubthumping.
I have
