The World of Fine Wine has unveiled its digital Tasting Notes Database, a significant milestone in the brand’s evolution under Ascend Media. Built on more than two decades of rigorous tasting and criticism, the database brings together The World of Fine Wine’s renowned notes and scores in a searchable format designed for collectors, buyers, producers, and the wider fine wine trade, as well as serious enthusiasts who want trusted guidance.
At a time when wine information is abundant but not always dependable, The World of Fine Wine’s distinctive authority rests on an editorial system created deliberately to avoid the pitfalls of a single dominant voice, such as prevailed in the 1990s and early 2000s.
From the beginning, The World of Fine Wine chose a different path. Rather than relying on one critic per region, its tastings are built around panels of experienced professionals, typically three tasters at a time. “Normally we will have one or two specialists in whatever the region is… and one or two experienced generalists,” Neil Beckett, editor of The World of Fine Wine explains. The blend is intentional. Specialists have an unrivalled depth of knowledge but, as Beckett puts it, “sometimes they can have their blinkers on.” Generalists can offer a broader perspective, ensuring the wines are judged not only against regional expectations but also in a wider global context.
That approach is reflected in the caliber of the people involved. Over the years, The World of Fine Wine has worked with a fixed panel of around 20 tasters, named in every issue, and refined that group into a core of eight to ten based on “accuracy, consistency, and the quality of the tasting notes.” At the center is contributing editor Andrew Jefford, whom Beckett describes as “as close as we’ve got to genius in the wine writing world.” For advertisers and partners looking for trusted environments and influential audiences, this is not a content engine built for volume. It is an editorially controlled process anchored in expertise.
Equally important is how those notes are produced. Panel tastings are “single blind,” tasters knowing the region and vintage but not the producer. “The key thing,” Beckett says, “is that they’re not swayed by the reputation of the producer.” Wines are bagged, numbered, and poured, so the bottles are never seen by the tasters. Notes are entered into a database during the tasting, allowing tasters to work at their own pace and revisit a wine as it opens in the glass. Only after the identities are revealed can tasters see which wine is which, and crucially, “once they finish and they’ve been given the crib… they cannot go back and change any of the scores.” This creates integrity and, for the tasters, vulnerability. Blind tasting carries “the risk of embarrassment if they give a low score to a famous producer,” Beckett notes, yet that is part of what makes the results credible.
The World of Fine Wine also limits the number of wines tasted in a single session, to a level that respects the palates of the tasters as well as the producers and their products, aiming for “as close to 30 or 40 wines as we can manage,” rather than the hundreds sometimes assessed in competitions or large-scale reviews. The difference shows in the detail. Tasters have time to pause, return, and write notes that can be, in Beckett’s words, “astonishingly eloquent, full, and insightful.”
So, what does the new Digital Tasting Notes Database deliver? It gives consumers and professionals a way to access a continually expanding database of more than 22,000 tasting notes as a structured resource. For fine wine, tasting notes are not a bonus or a frill—they are a form of decision support. Wine is “huge, vast” in its diversity, Beckett says, varying widely from vintage to vintage and evolving over time. For amateur and professional buyers making significant investments, “you want to reduce your risk as far as you can.” Most consumers and many professionals buy wine without being able to taste it first, so they depend on expert guidance and on critics whose palate they understand.
That is why The World of Fine Wine’s notes carry weight in the market. They function as third-party endorsement, and merchants routinely rely on trusted external authorities when promoting wines. The database makes The World of Fine Wine’s reputation practical, turning years of panel-led criticism into a tool that can be searched, referenced, and used.
The launch also reinforces what sets The World of Fine Wine apart from other tasting-note-heavy brands. Beckett acknowledges that there are sophisticated databases with greater volume, including those created by publications whose “raison d’être is tasting notes.” The World of Fine Wine is different. It publishes deep, expansive, long-form journalism, with articles that can run to 10,000 words, and covers wine through art, literature, history, philosophy, and psychology, alongside profiles, reporting, and commentary. The tasting notes are central, but they sit within a broader editorial perspective that attracts a rare readership—people who are “passionately and seriously interested in wine,” including high-net-worth collectors, knowledgeable enthusiasts, and trade professionals who regard staying informed as “a professional obligation.”
For Ascend Media’s advertising and partnership community, the message is clear. The World of Fine Wine’s Digital Tasting Notes Database is not simply a new feature. It is a proof point of authority, process, and audience quality. It strengthens the brand’s role as a trusted reference for the fine wine ecosystem, and it deepens engagement with a readership that values expertise, independence, and depth. In a category where trust drives purchase, and purchase signals status and intent, that combination is exactly what premium partners look for.
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The World of Fine Wine Access Links
For advertisers, a link to The World of Fine Wine’s media kit is available for download here.
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