If you fancy yourself a wino, you know the name Jay Miller. I didn’t say you liked Jay Miller, just that you probably know who he is. For those who don’t obsess about the crushed grape jus, Jay Miller worked as a wine reviewer for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, an unfortunately popular dinosaur of wine media’s formative years.
I say worked because Jay Miller left his position at WA. The impetus behind this decision? Well, it seems a couple of journalists uncovered a “Pay for Jay” scandal whereby wineries in Spain were going to have to pay €20,000 (roughly $27,000!!!!!) ~ and that doesn’t include the VAT ~ to get Miller to come to their property and check out their schnizz.
It will be interesting to see what shakes out from this … and to see if Miller really had any involvement in the scandal, but I usually operate under the presumption that where there is smoke, there is fire.
The SF Gate has some of the gory details, as does Jim Loire on his blog.
The moral of this story: stop reading that stodgy crap and learn about wine this dude, or get your self Dirty with this guy (who also makes wine with this guy), or learn from a lady … cuz lady’s rock … or look through some notes I have about the wine community.