2014 NAPA OFFICE TASTING DEPARTMENT INFORMATION
WHEN TO SUBMIT: Please submit wines as they are released. We review and print reviews of wines continuously throughout the year.
HOW TO SUBMIT: We require two bottles of each wine. Each submission must include: the suggested retail bottle price and the case production (in 12-bottle, 9 liter equivalents), and for imported wine, the number of cases imported into the United States. Samples submitted without this information, or with only one bottle may be disqualified from review. We do not guarantee the review of every single wine submitted to us.Please review the FAQs for detailed instructions for submitting wine.
AFTER YOU SUBMIT: Look for reviews in the magazine or online at . Do not contact us to check on the status of your review, as we are not permitted to discuss reviews before they are published.
TASTING REPORTS:In addition to reviewing new releases throughout the year, for some categories we also cover wines in annual tasting reports. While we prefer to see wines as they are released, the peak tasting times below represent when we are wrapping up our annual coverage. Samples received before or after this time frame will still be considered for review.
California Tasting ReportsTasting Time Frame / Peak Time
ZinfandelYear-round / February
ChardonnayYear-round / February
SparklingYear-round / February
Sauvignon BlancYear-round / April
Pinot NoirYear-round / April
Cabernet Sauvignon & BlendsYear-round / June
MerlotYear-round / July
Rhône-style reds & whitesYear-round / October
Other RegionsTasting Time Frame / Peak Time
New ZealandYear-round / February
AustraliaYear-round / February
WashingtonYear-round / July
OregonYear-round / August
Send samples to:
Wine Spectator
1750 First St.
Napa, CA 94559
tel.(707) 299-3999, fax (707) 299-3990
email.
You may hand deliver wines to the Napa office Monday-Friday from 9:00 am until 12:00 noon.
FAQs and TASTING DEPARTMENT POLICIES
HOW TO SUBMIT WINES FOR REVIEW
BESIDES THE PRICE AND CASE PRODUCTION, DO YOU NEED OTHER INFORMATION?
- We like to know the release date of a wine so that we can better assess the timing of a review.
- If your wine has residual sugar, we need that percentage so we may properly place it in a tasting.
- If the varietal is not clearly listed on the bottle, we need a breakdown of the grape varieties.
MY WINE IS NOT FINISHED. SHOULD I SEND IT IN ANYWAY?
No. We do not review tank or barrel samples. We do not review unfinished wines unless we are working on a barrel tasting, and these tastings are by invitation only. We will not accept wines that we suspect are not finished samples.
WHAT IF MY WINE IS FINISHED, BUT NOT RELEASED YET?
We prefer to get wines upon their release, or—because of our lead time for print—a little bit before their release. But if your wine will not be released for more than 2-3 months, please submit it closer to its release.
WHAT IF MY WINE IS DONE, BUT MY LABEL ISN’T FINISHED OR APPROVED?
All samples must have TTB-approved labels. We will not accept wines with unfinished labels. Imported samples must have the appropriate U.S. label, including the appropriate vintage.
DO I STILL NEED TO SUPPLY TWO BOTTLES OF EACH WINE EVEN IF I DON’T USE CORK?
For all samples we require two bottles of each wine, regardless of closure method. We regularly taste both bottles. Your wine may be disqualified for review if we do not receive two bottles.
CAN I DELIVER WINES IN PERSON?
You may deliver your wine to the Napa office Mon. through Fri., between 9 a.m.-12 noon. It’s unnecessary to call ahead. Please do not show up outside of our delivery hours, as there may not be someone available to receive your samples.
Our office is located in downtown Napa at 1750 First St., at the corner of First St. and Jefferson. There is a parking lot behind the building. Please use the east side porch entrance, adjacent to our Bank of America neighbors, between the two green and white awnings.
If you wish to meet with anyone on our editorial staff when dropping off your wine, please make an appointment to do so. We can’t have impromptu meetings outside of receiving your wine and making sure the information we need is included.
I’M GOING TO SHIP MY WINE. IS THAT OKAY?
Yes, we regularly receive shipments every morning from couriers. It’s unnecessary to notify us that a shipment is en route unless we specifically ask you to do so. Please do not send us tracking announcements via email.
Please be careful about shipping your wine in hot weather, and consider using the overnight (not ground) option. If we believe your wine has been heat damaged, we will contact you.
I MAKE A TYPE OF WINE THAT’S NOT LISTED. WHEN SHOULD I SEND THAT IN?
We review all types of wines, not just the major categories. No matter what type of wine you’re submitting, we prefer to get wines upon their release. We taste new releases throughout the year, even wines for which there are no currently scheduled tasting reports.
IS THERE ANY FEE ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR REVIEWS?
No. We do not charge for our reviews. In addition, you cannot pay to have a wine chosen as a Spectator Selection, and there is no charge when we choose to publish a label.
IF MY WINE IS REVIEWED, MAY I PAY TO HAVE MY LABEL REPRODUCED IN YOUR BUYING GUIDE?
No. All labels and bottles that appear in Wine Spectator are determined by our editors. They are reproduced at no charge to the suppliers and they cannot be requested or purchased.
WHAT IF MY WINE IS NOT IMPORTED INTO THE U.S ?
Wine Spectator only reviews wines that are available in the U.S.
CAN I SHIP SAMPLES DIRECTLY FROM OVERSEAS?
Please do not ship wines to us from outside of the U.S. Since we are not an importer or distributor, we cannot retrieve wines from U.S. customs. Please have your U.S.-based importer or distributor handle sample shipments to us.
THE REVIEW PROCESS
HOW ARE TASTINGS SET UP?
We set up flights of wines among their peers; other wines with similar varietals, vintages and appellations. All wines are tasted in blind, controlled settings and are not open to the public. The producer, price of a wine and case production information is not known when our tasters assign a score.
CAN SOMEONE FROM WINE SPECTATOR COME VISIT AND TASTE WITH ME?
You are welcome to invite anyone to visit, but please keep in mind that we are constantly working on deadlines, and usually can’t visit unless it directly relates to a story we’re working on. Even if we visit you, we still need samples to be sent to our Napa office for review. We only review wines in blind tastings, in tastings at our office. That is the only way for us to officially score a wine, even if we see it in a less formal setting.
HOW OFTEN ARE WINES REVIEWED?
We review wines in the Napa office nearly every day. Samples are typically reviewed in the order they were received.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A WINE IS REVIEWED?
Once a tasting is complete, the reviews are immediately slated for publication in the next issue being produced, or the next website update. Once a year, an editor will look at all of the reviews from the past year spread out over 15 issues to write an annual tasting report for that category.
DO YOU NOTIFY US IF/WHEN OUR WINE WILL BE REVIEWED?
No, we do not contact wineries to notify them of their reviews. No wine review is released before it is made public to our readers. Wine Spectator staffers are not permitted to share wine reviews with anyone—including the producers of the wine—in order to prevent inappropriate advance knowledge of our reviews.
Please do not contact us to check on the status of your wine. It is against our editorial policy to comment about the status of your wine once you submit it to us.
Our editorial policy strictly forbids revealing any information about reviews that are not yet printed in the magazine or on our website. This includes not only what score a wine receives, but also when/if a review will appear.
Because we process thousands of wines a year, we are unable to answer questions about whether or not we’ve received your wine. Please check with your courier to answer those questions.
I SENT IN MY WINE A LONG TIME AGO AND HAVE NOT SEEN A REVIEW YET. WHY? AND SHOULD I SEND IN ADDITIONAL SAMPLES?
Please do not resubmit samples unless we specifically ask you to.
We may have tasted your wine, but that review hasn’t appeared in print yet. Generally, it takes a few months for a review to appear in print once it’s reviewed, not received.
We may not have reviewed your wine. Because of the volume of wine we receive and can’t review, we never guarantee the review of any unsolicited wine. If we do not contact you and ask you for a specific wine, it is considered unsolicited.
DO YOU REVIEW EVERY SINGLE WINE SENT TO YOU?
No, we do not review every single wine sent to us. The volume of wines we receive makes this impossible. We have limited storage space and resources to process and review wines. We also want to provide our readers with sound buying advice; so while we may have tasted your wine in a blind tasting, we could have deemed it flawed and unreviewable.
The only wines we guarantee to review are those that we directly solicit. Unsolicited wines may be tasted, but we don’t guarantee a review will be published.
If we contact you directly and ask you to submit a wine to us, it is considered solicited. If we give you information about how to submit wines for review, it is not considered solicited.
Wines sent to Wine Spectator will not be returned.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR REVIEWS
Reviews may appear in print, on or both.
The most efficient way to find out whether a wine has been reviewed is to search our website tasting note database (available to online subscribers only) at The website will list all of the wines that have been published both online and in print (and list the publication date). Our database is updated about twice a month.
Some wine reviews will appear directly in our online database. These are wines that we are not recommending highly, have small case productions, have been in the market for a long time, or some combination of these factors. We review many more wines than we’re able to print full reviews of in the magazine. We reserve space in our magazine for recommended and nationally available wines.
In some cases, a review might appear on the website within days or just a couple weeks of being reviewed. Our online newsletters, the Insider and Advance, are emailed to thousands of readers every week and feature wines we are highly recommending. We also feature reviews online in our Tasting Highlights or mention wines we’ve tasted in editorial blogs.
I DIDN’T SUBMIT MY WINES TO YOU, BUT THEY WERE REVIEWED. I THOUGHT YOU ONLY REVIEWED WINES THAT WERE SUBMITTED TO YOU?
We routinely purchase wines for review. We prefer to receive samples directly from producers to ensure we’re getting fresh samples and accurate information. If a producer declines to participate, we may still purchase the wine. Our goal is to review the wines our readers consider important. We may also purchase wines to make sure the wines we review are the same wines available to our readers.
HOW DO I GET A LABEL PRINTED WITH MY REVIEW?
Label reproductions are editorial content, not sold advertising space. You cannot request that your label appear, but we appreciate it when you can provide us with an image of your label if we contact you.
I ALSO HAVE WINES FROM OTHER REGIONS. WHERE ARE THEY REVIEWED?
Wines from other regions, namely Bordeaux, Italy, Port, Burgundy, Spain, Champagne, Austria, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Languedoc, SouthAfrica, Alsace, Loire, Rhône, Portugal, Greece and Beaujolais are reviewed in our New York office. You can reach that department at .
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