In her column this month, Circle Chair Meg Maker encourage members to help and mentor colleagues as their New Year’s resolution for 2026.
Wine as a category is experiencing myriad existential threats: climatic, meteorological, social, cultural, financial. It’s a destabilising time, but as wine commentators our role is to help make sense of it all, prying apart false and shaky claims, dismantling gatekeeping, and sharing stories of innovation, creativity, and progress.
But wine writing itself is also in a precarious state, as publications shutter and work dries up. What can we do to address those very real threats our profession?
We can help each other.
Wine commentary is like many other fields where experts labor solo, competing for diminishing scraps. This can lead to zero-sum thinking, the notion that there are only so many resources to be had, and if I help a colleague, it reduces the pool of goodies available to me.
That’s nonsense. Mutual support has the inverse effect: it expands, rather than shrinks, the profession. It extends the reach of experienced voices. It supports new writers who have fresh insights. It brings more consumers to wine, especially when the writing proliferates beyond the pages of wine-only publications. It boosts the fortunes of winemakers and wine regions as news of their work is better and more broadly told. Better wine communication is just better for wine writ large.
So, in 2026 let’s help each other out. Let’s commit to supporting other writers, even just a single writer. Maybe it’s someone new to the profession whom you’ve come to admire. Maybe it’s a colleague who’s struggling with a leap to a new medium (from writing to podcasting), audience (from industry to consumer), or topic (from industrial to niche winemaking).
Here are a few ideas to get started:
- Strike up conversation. Reach out to ask for a call to learn more about their work, interests, and ambitions. Find out what’s in their way, and ask how you could help. Set up a monthly call to check in. You may find, over time, the support works in both directions.
- Introduce them to a favoured editor. If you think they’d be a fit for a publication to which you’ve contributed, offer to make introductions. Ask for examples of their best work to help make their case to the editor. Don’t hype: support.
- Read their writing and offer feedback. Offer to read a piece for tone, style, voice, or structure. Or, help them craft a pitch for that editor who is, by now, eager for their work.
- Give them a tip, a story you can’t tackle. We’ve all run into interesting stories that we want another writer to cover. Think about who in your network might address it beautifully, then send details, including sources.
- Share their contact information with a favourite publicist. Publicists are always looking for fresh and expert voices. Introductions can be especially helpful if the colleague is expanding their coverage into new markets or regions.
- Subscribe to their publications. Give them some love by reading, commenting, liking, subscribing, and sharing. Social media exposure doesn’t pay the bills, but it does build platform. And it’s called a network for a reason.
Imaging doing all of this for one other person; by the end of 2026 they would be in a stronger professional position. Now imagine if we all did that for one another. Wouldn’t that be even better?
Photo credit: Nadir