Stephen Tanzer – Part 1
This is the first of a two part interview with Stephen D. Tanzer. Stephen is the Editor and Publisher of the critically acclaimed bimonthly “International Wine Cellar”, an independent journal founded in 1985. The IWC is read by wine professionals and wine lovers in all 50 states and 33 countries, and was the first American wine periodical to be translated into French and Japanese. Tanzer has also served as Senior Editor and wine columnist for Food & Wine magazine and wrote Food & Wine’s Official Wine Guide in 1998 and 1999.
Tanzer samples well over 10,000 wines annually, spending several months each year tasting and discussing wines with their makers, both in the U.S. and abroad. By covering the world’s most important wine-producing regions in considerable depth and on a regular basis, Tanzer has been able consistently to introduce his readers to emerging superstar producers on five continents. He is currently working on a comprehensive wine buyer’s guide, to be published by Barnes & Noble in October of 2006.
For more info on todays guest:
International Wine Cellar: http://www.internationalwinecellar.com/
Sponsor: The Center for Wine Origins: Click Here to Learn More
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(31:40 min 15 MB)
Just listened to it and it was great, Thanks for all of the great shows.
Sean
Excellent and interesting interview.
I will certainly listen to the Tanzer interview when I have a moment, but I have a quick question about Tanzer for Brian or others who have already listened to the interview:
Tanzer always seems to be a slightly tougher scorer than other critics. Even on wines he clearly loves, he is invariably 2-4 points behind the WA or WS scores. Is this a conscious decision on his part?
I feel the way Stephen Tanzer grades wines is independent of any external forces (other critics/distributors/winemakers). For example, in the interview he mentions he gets a lot of pressure to give 90+ rating. They all want it and are afraid of the lower score will kill their sales. I can tell he struggles with this issue on every bottle he rates but ends up giving his honest opinion.