Marvin Shanken asked Helen Turley to increase his personal allocation of Marcassin while presenting her an award from his magazine, Wine Spectator. Robert Parker tasted the wines with winemaker Helen Turley. guess these weren’t among the “ more than 60% &# of wines that he purchases. American wine MORE >>

Robert Parker states that his publication, The Wine Advocate, purchases “more than 60%” of the wines that it reviews. Parker previously said that he paid for 75 percent of the wines, but amid the furor last year over the free trips that two of his contributors, Jay Miller and Mark Squires, had accepted, he scaled back that figure. MORE >>

A French court found 12 executives guilty of selling the equivalent of 18 million bottles of cheaper wine as pinot noir. AFP reports that generic red wines fetched 45 euros (about $62) per one hundred liters while the premium pinot noir fetched 97 euros. One of the firms involved had been paying 58 euros for the wines it sold to Gallo. MORE >>

Wineries that advertise in Wine Spectator have their wines score better–but only by less than one point. Such is the finding in the lead article in the new issue of the Journal of Wine Economics. SPIT: binge drinking; SIPPED: wine tasting. SPIT: pre-selling wine. SIPPED: number crunching. MORE >>

home : wine recommendations : wine girl for hire : bio : articles : contact « New Biodynamic Regulations Coming | Main | The Return of Airplane Wine (almost) » Wine Spectator Award of Excellence? Well," Ethel, I said, "Im not the only wine writer in the States and anyway, theres no story there." MORE >>