American Fine Wine Magazine

While recently persuing the magazine shelves of a local book store, I found a new wine magazine, American Fine Wine Magazine. Though it was a bit pricey, at $14.99, I decided to buy it and check it out, especially as it was the first issue. It looked potentially interesting and had a couple articles on Spanish wine.

American Fine Wine Magazine concentrates on fine wines, focusing on the American wine market. Similar editions are published for Scandanavia, Germany, and Europe. The company also publishes Fine Champagne and Fine Wine Investing. American Fine Wines is published quarterly and is an oversized magazine with over 160 pages.

Who is the target audience for this magazine? According to their website, their readers are a mix of wine connoisseurs and high-income executives. "They have a jet-set lifestyle, travel frequently in first class, stay in luxurious five star hotels, and regularly drink the rarest and finest wines." The vast majority of the readers are also professionals who make an annual income over $500,000. Well that classification and income level omits me. It would probably also omit most other wine bloggers.

Their distribution strategy is different as well. The magazine is availanble in about 2000 stores, such as Barnes & Noble. But, you can also get copies where you buy a Bentley, cruise on a Sunseeker luxury yacht, or fly on Lufthansa’s private jet.

The magazine has numerous articles on fine wines, including the best Champagnes, Bordeaux and other world-class wines. It also talks about some wine personalities. This first issue has articles on high-end Spanish wines, Vega Sicilia, Chateau Marguax, Louis Roderer, Serena Sutcliffe and more. The magazine also has plenty of photographs, which appear to be part of the reason for the magazine, to showcase top notch photography.

I found the articles decently interesting though there was little I found there that another wine magazine could not provide. And with all the photos, it was difficult to determine the actual length of the articles. They were so spread out that they seemed much longer than they really were. Plus, there are many advertisements, generally all for high-end luxuries. Another minor criticism is that the magazine seems to rely more on prices in Euros than U.S. dollars. It is supposed to be an American magazine so the prices should be in dollars.

The magazine presents some tasting notes and they have their own method of rating the wines. They use a 100 point scale but in a bit of a different way. Their rating is based on the "enjoyability on the date of tasting." Their rating does not consider the future potential of the wine. The sole basis is on how it tastes at the moment of tasting. Their breakdown of point levels is also a bit different from the usual 100 point system. For example, a 90 point wine is a "good wine, close to excellent." Wines of 80-87 points are average wines. 142 wines were reviewed in the current issue.

Overall, I was not impressed with this magazine. I don't think it has much to offer the common reader. It is created for a specialized audience, which is not the general public. It is a lot of flash but without much substance. I would not recommend this magazine.