What is a wine critic ?

A wine critic is a person who evaluates wine and describes it by a numerical score, a tasting comment or a combination of both. To be more reliable, these experts often taste the same wines several times.

What is their impact ?

The ratings and comments published in books, newspapers, magazines, newsletters or online are not only used by consumers to get informed advice and decide whether or not to buy a wine, but they also influence the commercial positioning of merchants, traders and other distributors on a wine or a winery. A good rating from an influential critic will significantly increase the demand for and value of a wine or a domain. The opposite will often have the opposite effect.

They have become the key influencers of the international Fine Wine market.

Allen Meadows - USA Jane Anson - UK Robert Parker Wine Advocate - USA Bettane & Desseauve - France Jean-Marc Quarin - France The Wine Independent - USA Decanter - UK Jeannie Cho Lee - Korea/USA Tim Atkin - UK Falstaff - Austria Jeb Dunnuck - USA Vinous- USA Guide Hachette - France Luca Maroni - Italy Vinum- Swiss Halliday Wine Companion - Australia Peñín - Spain Weinwisser - Germany Hugh Johnson - UK Platter's - South Africa Wine Enthusiast - USA James Suckling - USA René Gabriel - Swiss Wine Spectator - USA Jancis Robinson - UK Revue du Vin de France - France Yves Beck - Swiss

Allen Meadows

Rating scale: 100 points / USA / Burgundy wines / www.burghound.com After a career in finance, he decided to create Burghound.com in 1999, a quarterly magazine dedicated exclusively to burgundies/pinot noirs and champagnes/sparklers. Burghound.com was the first site to offer specialized and comprehensive coverage of a specific wine region. The site now has several thousand subscribers in over 64 countries. Mr Meadows spends over five months a year in Burgundy and visits over 300 wineries during that time. Founded with Erica Meadows, their son, Chris Meadows, joined the company as a business partner in 2011.

Bettane & Desseauve

Rating scale: 20 points, 100 points and 1-5 stars (Domains) / France / Wines of the world / www.mybettanedesseauve.fr Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve have a long experience (20 years at the Revue du Vin de France) and a great competence. They are probably the most influential French wine critics today. Their guide has become a reference/benchmark in the wine world. The wines tasted are rated out of 20 points and more recently out of 100 points in order to be more in line with international standards. As for the domains, they are rated from 1 to 5 stars. The Guide Bettane & Desseauve des Vins de France carefully selects and ranks the best wines from each of the major wine-growing regions.

Decanter

Rating scale: 20 points, 100 points and 1-5 stars / United Kingdom / Wines of the world / www.decanter.com Decanter is the UK's most famous wine magazine, available every month in over 90 countries around the world. To evaluate the wines, Decanter calls on its teams of experts made up of several "Masters of Wine". Scores are given using a system of 20 or 100 points and stars. In addition, Decanter organises the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards each year, which rewards the man or woman of the year. This award has undoubtedly become one of the most prestigious in the world of wine.

Falstaff

Rating scale: 100 points / Austria / Wines of the world / www.falstaff.com Founded in 1980 as a wine magazine in Austria, Falstaff is today a well-established media platform in German-speaking Europe with leading publications and websites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Falstaff’s print and e-magazines including range extensions, make Falstaff the largest wine, food and travel magazine in German- speaking Europe with a total circulation of around 150,000. In all three countries, Falstaff publishes authoritative annual wine guides that reflect and represent the countries' wine industries. The German and Austrian guides are also published in English. With the falstaff.at, falstaff.de and falstaff.ch homepages newsletters, social media presence and guide apps, Falstaff’s total audience and community numbers in the millions.

Halliday Wine Companion

Rating scale: 100 points / Australia / Australian wines / www.winecompanion.com.au Respected wine critic and winemaker, James Halliday is the founder of Halliday Wine Companion. With a winemaking career spanning over 50 years, he was one of the founders of Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley, and later, Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley. James Halliday is an unrivalled authority on all aspects of the wine industry, and for over 30 years, has been one of Australia's longest serving and most active wine judges. He has won numerous awards for his contributions, including the Australian wine industry's highest accolade, the Maurice O'Shea. In 2010 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the wine industry. Since 1970, James Halliday has written or contributed to over 80 books on wine.

Guide Hachette des Vins

Rating scale: 1-3 stars and favorite / France / French wines / www.hachette-vins.com * a wine very successful, ** a wine remarkable, *** a wine exceptional Every year for the past 30 years, the Guide Hachette des Vins has offered a selection of the best French wines and wineries (10,000 wines selected from 40,000 wines tasted). This guide has become a must for wine lovers and has become a benchmark for wine purchases.

Hugh Johnson

Rating scale: 1-4 stars / United Kingdom / Wines of the world / no website * will correspond to a simple wine, ** above average, *** very famous, **** very great, very prestigious and expensive! For over 35 years, Hugh Johnson has been sharing his extensive knowledge of wine with his readers through his "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book", a 'must have' that approaches the subject of wine from a different and passionate angle. Wines and wineries are classified according to their quality, from 1 to 4 stars or with coloured stars for wines and estates that are in vogue and whose vintages have reached perfect maturity. He also provides many other tips on food and wine pairing. He is also co-author with Jancis Robinson of the famous Encyclopedia "World Wine Atlas", the absolute reference!

James Suckling

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Wines of the world / www.jamessuckling.com James Suckling is considered to be one of the world’s most influential wine critics, alongside Robert Parker. A journalist by training, he joined the Wine Spectator in 1981 and worked there for over twenty years as editor-in-chief. In 2010 he launched his website jamessuckling.com, quickly establishing himself as a leading voice in the world of wine. His tasting work (up to 4,000 wines per year) is colossal and his review are highly anticipated. Often the first to publish information on new vintages, James Suckling's website has become a must in the world of wine criticism.

Jancis Robinson

Rating scale: 20 points / United Kingdom / Wines of the world / www.jancisrobinson.com Jancis Robinson is the world’s most famous wine critic and has maintained an impeccable reputation for decades. In 1984 she was awarded the title of Master of Wine. In collaboration with The Oxford Companion to Wine, she has created a unique encyclopedia, considered to be the benchmark in the field. In 2003, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the Queen. Her team, made up of several 'Masters of Wine', is one of the most efficient and her website, created in 2000, is today one of the most consulted in its category with clients in over 80 countries. Its 20-point rating is extremely reliable and any wine with a score of 16 or more is definitely worth a visit. Since 2021, Jancis Robinson has been part of Recurrent Ventures, a US-based digital media company with 45 million unique visitors per month through its various titles.

Jane Anson

Rating scale: 100 points / United Kingdom / Bordeaux wines / www.janeanson.com A Former Bordeaux correspondent and columnist for Decanter magazine, Jane Anson is now based in Bordeaux and has chosen to focus exclusively on the wines of the Bordeaux vineyards. She is a graduate of the DUAD at the Bordeaux Institute of Oenology and an accredited teacher at the Bx Wine School.

Jean-Marc Quarin

Rating scale: 20 points /100 points / France / Bordeaux wines / www.quarin.com Independent Bordeaux wine critic. One of Jean-Marc's major strong points is the fact that he is based in Bordeaux. This enables him to follow the situation there closely, taste the new wines when they are very young, anticipate on their quality, and discover the most talented winegrowers. Indeed, "a wine's potential depends on what happens in the vineyard". Today, now turning in his 28th year as wine critic, Jean-Marc Quarin has written over 15 000 pages about Bordeaux wines and his unique data base contains more than 45 000 wine tasting reviews.

Jeannie Cho Lee

Rating scale: 100 points / Korea and United States of America / Wines of the world / winenote.jeanniecholee.com A Korean-American wine critic based in Hong Kong, Lee holds a master's degree in public policy from Harward University. She began her career as a business journalist in Asia before moving on to international wine publications such as The Wine Spectator, The World of Fine Wine, Wine Business International and Revue du Vin de France. She joined Decanter magazine in 2010 as a contributing editor for Asia. Author, journalist, consultant, wine teacher, Jeannie Cho Lee was the first person of Asian origin to obtain the title of Master of Wine, in 2008. She enjoys a strong reputation and influence in the Asian markets.

Jeb Dunnuck

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Wines of the world / www.jebdunnuck.com No other critic has tasted and rated as many wines for Robert Parker's Wine Advocate in such a short space of time as Jeb Dunnuck. Even before the former space engineer joined Parker in 2013, Dunnuck was a recognised expert on wines from the Rhône, Bordeaux, southern France, Washington and California. He reinforced that reputation with the Wine Advocate, which he left in 2017. Now independent, Jeb Dunnuck now publishes his scores and reviews on jebdunnuck.com. He is now considered the ultimate expert on Rhône Valley wines, but not only!

Luca Maroni

Rating scale: 100 points / Italy / Italian wines / www.lucamaroni.com Between 1987 and 1989, he worked with Luigi Veronelli, wrote for the magazine "L'Etichetta" and founded "Ex Vinis", the first Italian wine newsletter. In September 1990, Luca launched the publishing company Lm, creating "The Taster of Wine", a magazine dedicated to wine and wine tasting, in which, in 1996, he presented his philosophy of the "fruitiness of wine" and the corresponding tasting method, based on the evaluation of quality according to the pleasure felt. In the same year he published the first "Guida dei Vini Italiani", an updated version of which is published every year. Luca has also taken part in numerous seminars and conferences and has developed a consulting business. He has published and contributed to numerous books on and around wine. His website lucamaroni.com was launched in 2000 and now contains 300,000 tasting notes. He is undoubtedly considered and recognised as the world’s leading specialist in Italian wines.

Peñín

Rating scale: 100 points / Spain / Spanish and South American wines / www.guiapenin.wine Peñín is the leading company in the promotion and dissemination of Spanish wine culture worldwide. Since 1990, the company has been mainly known for the annual publication of the Peñín Guide to Spanish Wines and for organising professional events inside and outside Spain. In addition, it is developing other wine-related activities, such as training, communication services and oenological consultancy. The Peñín Guide to Spanish Wines is the most comprehensive Spanish wine manual in the world. It is available in Spanish, English, German and Chinese. The Peñín Guide has become the Vademecum of Spanish wine, with over 11,500 tastings per year. In addition to Spanish wines, the tasting team evaluates wines from other countries, such as Mexico, Argentina and Chile, every year.

Platter’s

Rating scale: 100 points / South-Africa / South African wines / www.wineonaplatter.com South Africa's first and still best-selling wine annual, Platter's Guide is the comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative guide to who's who and what's what in the wine business. Featuring hundreds of producers, merchants and brands, as well as thousands of individual wines, Platter's Guide brings together everything you need to know about the South African wine scene in an informative and entertaining format. Platter's Guide was conceived in 1978 by wine-lovers and print journalists, John and Erica Platter, after reading Hugh Johnson's ground-breaking Pocket Wine Book. Four decades, two World’s Best Wine Guide awards, and over 1.5 million copies later, we'd like to think the Platters were onto something.

René Gabriel

Rating scale: 20 points / Swiss / Bordeaux wines / www.bxtotal.com In addition to his position as purchasing director of the famous Swiss wine merchant “Mövenpick”, René Gabriel has gradually developed his activity as a journalist to become one of the most influential wine critics in the German-speaking world. René Gabriel is particularly well known as a specialist on the Bordeaux region, having tasted over 30,000 wines in 20 years. He not only judges the latest vintage but is also interested in how the styles and qualities of different châteaux have evolved over time. Bordeaux Total brings together his countless tasting notes in a regularly updated full version and a more concise pocket version. His website of the same name provides access to all his notes.

La Revue du Vin de France

Rating scale: 20 points and 1-3 stars (Domains) / France / French wines / www.larvf.com Founded in 1927 and having a direct influence on wine production at the time, the Revue du Vin de France is the oldest and most esteemed wine magazine in France. It is now owned by the Marie-Claire group. Wines are rated on/out of 20 points wineries can be awarded from 1 to 3 stars for the overall quality of their products. La Revue du Vin de France offers reliable and serious assessments but also a wealth of information on wine regions and wineries.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Wines of the world / www.robertparker.com A famous critic with a worldwide reputation, often copied and envied but rarely equalled, Robert Parker is the American wine guru! Since the 80's, surrounded by a team of the most qualified tasters and through his famous magazine The Wine Advocate, the famous critic has been setting trends. To have your wine rated highly by Robert Parker is a real accolade! Introduced by Robert Parker, the 100-point rating system is now the benchmark rating system used internationally. He retired in 2012 when he sold his site to Singaporean investors. Owned by the Michelin Group since 2019, The Wine Advocate now works for wines from all over the world. It is now headed by Joe Czerwinski with William Kelley as deputy editor.

The Wine Independent

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America and Sweden / Wines of the world / www.thewineindependent.com Lisa Perrotti-Brown and Johan Berglund (photographer) Master of Wines and wine critic, Lisa Perrotti-Brown seeks to capture what she sees in the glass while digging into the stories behind the wines. An unconditional advocate for the consumer, The Wine Independent seeks this free approach to wine, responding to consumer needs with honesty and integrity.

Tim Atkin

Rating system: 100 points / United Kingdom / Wines of the world / www.timatkin.com Tim Atkin is a multi-talented man in the wine business. He is a journalist, photographer, broadcaster, juror and, of course, critic. The Briton can not only draw on over 35 years of experience, but also on his extensive knowledge as a 'Master of Wine'. He writes for specialist publications such as Decanter Magazine and serves as co- chairman of the International Wine Challenge (IWC), one of the world's most influential wine tasting competitions. His regular reports on his website timatkin.com are widely recognised.

Vinous

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Wines of the world / www.vinous.com Antonio Galloni - Stephen Tanzer - Neil Martin Born in Venezuela to an American mother and an Italian father, Antonio Galloni grew up in Florida where his parents sold Italian wines. In 2004, he began publishing the Piedmont Report on Piedmont wines. As the only Italian wine critic to write in English with the exception of James Suckling, his writings attracted readers from all over the world. Robert Parker asked him to join the Wine Advocate as an Italian wine critic, which he did in 2006. He also covers California, Champagne, Chablis and the Côte d'Or. In 2013, the American critic decided to set up his own site and launched Vinous. A year later, he teamed up with Stephen Tanzer who became his editor-in-chief. Neal Martin, considered a worthy successor of the famous critic Robert Parker with whom he has collaborates since 2006 at the Wine Advocate, also joined Vinous in 2017. He covers the wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux as well as wines from South Africa and New Zealand.

Vinum

Rating scale: 100 points / Swiss / Bordeaux wines / www.vinum.eu Vinum, the magazine of wine culture, has been published since 1980 and reaches hundreds of thousands of readers every month in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Spain thank to three country-specific editions. Vinum focuses on trends in the wine scene, presenting more than 300 exceptional wines and their creators every month. A network of Vinum authors located in the most important wine regions of Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Austria) enables us to deliver high added-value information and reports from the field, in the different terroirs. In addition to the magazine, special editions, online platforms, apps, books, social media presence, awards and events give the VINUM brand a prominent place in the world of international media.

Weinwisser

Rating scale: 20 points / Germany / Bordeaux wines / www.weinwisser.org WeinWisser is the leading German-language wine and tasting magazine for wine professionals and ambitious wine lovers. For over 25 years, Weinwisser has stood for independent and expert wine criticism. The 12-strong WeinWisser team, led by editor-in-chief and wine critic Giuseppe Lauria, systematically tastes, describes and evaluates over 4,000 premium wines from around the world each year, providing valuable advice to wine professionals and passionate wine lovers. WeinWisser provides information on current wine trends, showcases the world's best and newest wines and vineyards, and features the most prominent personalities in the wine world

Wine Enthusiast

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Bordeaux wines / www.wineenthusiast.com Wine Enthusiast is an American magazine and website specialised in wine, spirits, gastronomy and travel. Founded in 1988 by Adam Strum, the magazine is run from its headquarters in New York and is distributed to over 500,000 readers! Editor-in-chief Susan Kostrzewa runs the magazine, accompanied by an efficient team of editors and writers, including Lauren Buzzeo and Roger Voss.

Wine Spectator

Rating scale: 100 points / United States of America / Bordeaux wines / www.winespectator.com A major American magazine specialised in wine and wine culture since 1976, the 15 annual editions, include between 400 and 1,000 tasting notes, as well as news, articles, interviews and features. It is this last section, eagerly awaited by all readers, that has made its reputation. James Molesworth is the current editor-in-chief. Every year since 1988, the Wine Spectator has published a Top 100 wines, awaited by the whole wine industry!

Yves Beck

Rating scale: 100 points / Swiss / Bordeaux wines / www.yvesbeck.wine Yves Beck, nicknamed "Beckustator", is a Swiss wine critic. His favorite subjects are Swiss wines, as well as wines from Bordeaux, Alsace and Germany. Today he is one of the most influential wine critics in the world. Currently, the site's database contains over 15,800 tasting notes. His tasting notes are precisely written with an interesting and relevant mix of technique, poetry and humour. He likes to repeat that he does not hold any truth but rather that it is to be found in each wine. Everyone will find their own truth.