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Jancis Robinson on her Wine Writer Comments That Sparked a ‘Witch Hunt’
by Jim Gordon
I suspected that Jancis Robinson had more to say about her widely quoted remarks at the Wine Creators conference in Spain last weekend. So after my post yesterday on this topic I asked her for details and she provided them.
She thinks her brief comments about wine writers being parasitical and needing to have more humility were taken “completely out of context” on Decanter.com, and resulted in “witch hunters” going after her on eRobertParker.com. She pointed me to an elaboration on what she said in Spain on her own site yesterday. Here are a couple of key paragraphs.
Jancis wrote,”One of the points I made when summing up was the importance not just of what happened at the conference, but also how it was reported: the difference between reality and reported reality. Talk about hoisted by your own petard…! I made two throwaway remarks about wine writers, for the point of this conference was communication between top wine producers and wine media.”
Her talk about wine writers stemmed from something she’d already published in her masterwork book. She was surprised at how heated were the comments on Decanter and eRobertParker about something that’s been in print for years.
She wrote: “En passant I mentioned how I describe wine writing in the Oxford Companion to Wine as ‘a parasitical activity’ (something that has been seen by the hundreds of thousands of wine enthusiasts who have seen the book over the last 14 years). But the fact that a story on decanter.com highlighted this quote really got the ebob witch-hunters going again (their favourite witch being me). I suppose I just have to be grateful that witches are no longer dunked to see if they drown.”
There’s no doubt that Jancis says what she thinks.
Filed under: Critics/Competitions
2 Responses to “Jancis Robinson on her Wine Writer Comments That Sparked a ‘Witch Hunt’”
Please Wait
April 25th, 2008 at 8:20:02 PM
Who are these small minded people constantly criticizing others? Is it perhaps that it makes them feel important to do so? Have any of them, anywhere near the knowledge or contributed as much as Jancis Robinson to the wonderful world of wine? I wonder if they even take the time to truly enjoy and appreciate the great gift of wine.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:56:46 PM
I’ve been a Jancis Robinson fan for years, for her knowledge, elegant prose and good sense. I can only think that “ebob” is assaulting her to stir up enough controversy to make/sell news. Old fashioned approach, but fun if one retains a sense of humor about it.