Critic Scores Same Wine 88 And 96 In Same Week

Publishing both notes without retraction, a nationally syndicated wine critic scored the same Paso Robles Syrah an 88 and a 96 within four days of each other last week, sources reported.

The 88 ran in Tuesday’s subscriber newsletter. The 96 ran Friday, opposite a full-page advertisement for the winery.

“Honestly, that was a big mistake on my end and I’ll own it — I forgot they’d paid the extra fee for the rating and I had to go back and update it,” said critic Bernard Tolliver, adding that both notes were written from the same bottle and that his palate had not changed in the interval. “The wine didn’t change. My assessment of the wine didn’t change. What changed is that I had incomplete information about the submission when I filed the first one. That’s a process failure and we’ve fixed the process.”

The publication’s rate card lists a $1,200 expedited review fee and a $3,400 tier called premium consideration. Both are disclosed on page 74.

At press time, Tolliver had rescored the wine a 98 after finding $800 in pocket change the winery had slipped him on his last visit.