The Wine Spectator is one of those magazines designed to reassure you that you’re rich or that you soon could be, all in the context of a shared love for the fruit of the vine.
There’s lots of deadly serious material in this glossy, pleasing publication. But if you’re a lover of wine who is not rich—the category includes this reviewer—you need to learn to take it with a sense of humor. Just enjoy the game.
That game includes a travelogue of the world’s wine regions as well as the possibility of gaining a decent education via month-by-month reading in viticulture and wine appreciation itself. This reader is in it for the long haul—I hope to enjoy good wine at an affordable cost for the duration of this earthly slog—and the Wine Spectator is my companion along the way.
My job takes me out for many dinners in various parts of the world that include wine-splendored places like France, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and—of course—Northern California. But with wineries now in 49 of the USA’s fifty states, what’s not a wine region these days?
On those business treks, I find myself out for dinner as often as not. It’s personally satisfying to know just enough to order a Pinotage in Capetown, since only South Africa produces this varietal, or to opt for one of Argentina’s persuasive Malbecs because they’re just that good. We’re not talking wine snobbery here, just satisfaction at the margins of life’s all too margin-less journeys.
If this sounds like your game, the Wine Spectator may be a worthwhile investment. Even if not, consider splitting a subscription with a colleague. That’s what I do. At half the price, I get a fine magazine and avoid burdening my bookshelves with one more heavy, beautiful, pleasant magazine. Life can deal you worse.
Canter Bridge 
Leave a comment