Ep 330: Journalistic Integrity in Wine with Don Kavanagh of Wine-Searcher

<p>The question comes up again and again in wine: who can we read that is trustworthy and who reports on the truth? We know it isn't the glossy magazines and many industry wonks are all in the pocket of high end producers and beholden to them so they can stay in the "club" and continue to drink expensive wine in their elite circles. </p> <p> </p> <p>There is one guy, however, that you can trust. And that is <strong>Don Kavanagh</strong> the editor of <a href= "https://www.wine-searcher.com" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Wine-Searcher</a>'s journalistic arm. He has spent the past 25 years either working in the wine trade or writing about it, in his native Ireland, the UK, and New Zealand. He is far from an insider and his dedication to telling things as they are -- as a true observer of situations rather than a judge, jury, or partisan -- is clear in all that he writes and publishes. </p> <p><img style= "display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/45638/don_kavanagh.jpg" alt= "" width="216" height="168" /></p> <p>Don is a truly normal person. Unlike people who were graced with expensive bottles at his parents' dinner table, he worked his way through the wine trade, working in the UK and learning about wine (while also laying bricks, doing construction and being a bouncer), setting up his own shop in New Zealand, and then attending journalism school before launching a successful career at newspapers, wine trade publications, and now Wine-Searcher. I really relate to his story, having grown up in a home without luxuries myself and having to work many jobs to pay the bills.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don's commitment to honest representation of facts led him to doggedly pursue the <a href= "https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2018/10/who-leaked-the-somms-wine-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 scandal in the Court of Master Sommeliers in which a board member gave away the answers to portions of the exam</a>. This led to all candidates being de-certified and was a big