Much as Robert Parker might dislike the idea, wine writers occupy a role in determining which wines sell and which do not. But are things going too far? One of the most interesting and alarming things about my recent visit to several major Melbourne retailers was not so much the wide spread of stock carried up and down the aisles, but the extraordinary number of wines that are not on display. I have a very large room full of wine samples, plenty of which are simply not in front of the buying public. More than ever before, wholesale distribution is a major issue, and even if a winery finds itself a willing distributor, there is absolutely no guarantee that its wines will be stocked at retail level. The plethora of new brands means that some wine producers are taking increasingly desperate measures to find avenues of distribution, and the extent to which they are prepared to butter up retailers and other parties able to influence their ability to make sales is becoming even more extreme. The media are becoming even more crucial to the fate of wine businesses, especially those hanging out for their first ‘break’. Last week a well-known wine writer informed me that he had been offered payment by a wine company in turn for a favourable review. This is an extraordinary development, and hopefully it will be an isolated one. There are already enough issues behind the scenes of Australian wine criticism and review without adding brown paper bags of cash into the equation.
