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A Question of Integrity

The other day, one of the wine makers I mentioned in my recent Paso Robles article wrote and asked for my shipping address. They wanted to send me a package. I asked what it was, because (as I said to them) I'm wary about packages from wine makers when they're not samples for a particular article.

They told me it was their standard holiday gift basket: a few artisanal Paso products and a bottle of their lowest-tier wine. I thought about it and decided it was okay. The package seemed more like a "hey it was good to meet you, and we're spreading some holiday cheer" than a "you should write about our great products." After all, the article's published and at this point immutable. But I'm a wine writer and they're a wine maker and I've just taken a present from them.

Have I compromised my integrity? As a co-worker said, some vegetables and a bottle of wine won't sway my opinions. It's a small family-owned winery with a lot of sincerity; that will have a bigger impact on anything I write about them in the future. And if I thought the quality of their wines declined, I wouldn't hesitate to say so. Finally, I'm not going to try and think up ways to write about them just because of the gift basket. Still. If I were writing another piece about Rhones from Paso, mightn't I think to interview them before I thought of other Rhone producers in the area? That indirectly translates into more press.

I know some people figure that writers should take advantage of these opportunities. It's not like we make a lot of money, and this is sort of supplemental income. Anyway, they might say, it's tough to be truly objective. Many wineries work the press hard because a good score can translate into big sales. In the end, all wineries are businesses and people need to make a living from them. I feel like I should work just as hard to counter these efforts. I should be able to offer an honest opinion to readers. If you knew a writer was on good terms with a producer, how would you view the writer's praise? Perhaps people aren't as skeptical as I imagine; Wine Spectator's scores have a huge following, and that magazine is riddled with ads. On the other hand, lots of people (including Wine Spectator) cried foul when Amanda Hesser gave a great review to Spice Market without mentioning that she's friends with owner Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Mimi Sheraton remarked in Eating My Words that when she was the New York Times restaurant critic, she wouldn't go to events where she might meet chefs. Partly this protected her notorious anonymity, but it also prevented her from becoming friendly with a chef she might need to review later. It made a lot of sense to me.

I guess going forward I'll have to decline all "extracurricular" presents, even if it means turning down simple expressions of good will. I'd rather be a wine writer that people trust than one people view with suspicion.

Blogs need to address this topic more and more. A number of companies have started schmoozing food and wine bloggers in the hopes that we'll promote their products. I've gotten press releases, offers of samples from wineries, notes from publicists about movies, and even an offer from a publisher to help me design a contest so I could give free copies of books to you. I almost went for that one, just because I'm so passionate about books. (Of course I thought of calling the contest "Shilling for The Man" so maybe the publisher should be thankful I declined). I have a label in gmail called "Rent this blog!" for all these. I'm glad to see that marketers view us as influential, but I think our greatest strength is strong, independent opinions. Pick up just about any mainstream food mag if you want to read text that's shaped by advertisers and devoid of personality. For that reason I've resisted all these advances except for passing along the occasional press release. Then why take the gift basket? I guess the difference is that the gift basket wasn't overtly trying to influence me, while people who contact me about promoting items here want me to write something I might not write otherwise.

Like so many facets of life, your views on this topic are personal decisions (and as Pim often reminds readers, blogs are our sandboxes so we can do what we want on them). But I feel strongly that any writer should tell readers where s/he is coming from. Our readers need to know what's forming our opinions so they can weigh them appropriately. That's true for bloggers and professional writers alike.

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