Shield, Mark --- "What price bias?" [1997] LawIJV 57; (1997) 71(2) The Law Institute Journal 88

• What price bias?

What price bias?

Spare a thought for the lot of a wine writer. Sometimes (like being a copper) it's not a happy one.

While you don't have to be cruel to be kind, you do have to be honest for the sake of the readers.

When I first assumed the role, I was flattered by the increased mail in the form of press releases. I was like a lonely bloke savouring junk mail in a quest to be noticed.

Other flattering things included sample bottles and invitations to lunch. Both were most welcome until I started to taste the samples and sat through a few lunches. It didn't take long to understand that the desperate winemakers send their misfit bottles for review in the hope they will get a mention.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch and that dawned pretty early, along with the fact that although the host and venue changed. the audience remained the same. The wine press is a small scrum that rotates from function to function, telling the same tales and jokes and making all the polite noises.

Its easy to fall into the grasp of the PR machine which is well-oiled with money and booze. But it doesn't generate stories in the long term and if you are going to make a living you have to sell words There is little point in writing the same stuff as everyone else.

Any avid reader of the wine press can quick ly tune into what the PR machine is churning out. For example, recently there was a flourish of stories by writers about Spain. Guess what, they had been on a trip paid for by the Spanish Government and the vast majority of the stories made no acknowledgement of this fact.

I wasn't invited. I've got a reputation for knocking such trips back. I've scratched California, France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand. live newt been invited to South Africa and the news has filtered back it's because I'm dangerously outspoken.

ABC TV’s Media Watch would have a field day if it devoted a program to the wine scribes. But where do you draw the line? It's easy to nil here surrounded by free samples and take the high moral ground about not accepting free trips. Consider the cases of Epicure Uncorked, The Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide and Mark Shield's Wine Guide. They are review publications and all solicit samples. None have the funds to simply go out and buy the wines. None make a declaration about the samples being submitted free of charge. Guilty as charged!

It could become ridiculous: "This article was the result of a not so free lunch", but readers have the right to know who is paying the piper. Like any type of critical reviewing that can influence sales, be it travel, cars, finance, restaurants, television or whatever, the reader should know where the writer is coming from.

Perhaps that is selling readers short; they can probably make their own judgments about external influence.

On the funny side spare a thought for an underwater wine tasting on the Great Barrier Reef. We were supposed to taste wine in a sub while looking at the coral and the fish. It didn't take long to say no!

What about flying to the Red Centre and trudging up that world famous rock to taste the latest Jacob's Creek? The idea was to taste Australia's bestselling and largest single red wine brand. In reality, I walked around to a bottle shop and paid $6.99 for the privilege. The idea of having a heart attack while puffing up the rock to taste a low rent red didn't bear thinking about! I wouldn't do it for a Grange or a Mouton-Rothschild. A stubby at the base or a walk to the bottle shop is preferable.

It's natural to bitch about your job - after all what are jobs for? - but in my business it's a life sentence. Once the wine writing gets into the blood there is no turning back. However, after fifteen years in the job there must be some accounting for the apparently free ride.

It won't happen, but all wine scribes should declare their interests and the source of the story. It would be a balance to the opinions voiced. Easy for me to say, I'm broke but never short of a drink! 

MARK SHIELD