I am not afraid of furious remarks from well-known Russian wine writers. I admit I’m unwell myself. In my dreams I am an editor of Decanter and, sometimes, The World of Fine Wine – a pronounced psychical disability. But maybe I am not alone. There are a bunch of us, Russians, writing about wines. But this doesn’t make me happy at all, I am mostly not proud of my colleagues.

Let’s cut the crap – there’s no wine journalism in Russia as well as there is no ordinary journalism. Well, almost. A wine journalist making his living out of wine writing is a rare being. Better be put into the IUCN Red List.

The demand for wine text in Russia is somewhat reminiscent of that for fine wines – Russians consume brands, the more famous the name is – the better. Let everything else go to hell. Same names and faces are everywhere. If there’s ever a text about wine in a Russian glossy magazine or a business newspaper – you bet you will see the name you know.

No way it is a plot. If young and beautiful wanted to write wine texts – they most definitely would. “If” is a keyword here. I don’t detect any US Department of State’s or any other suspicious money here. Everything Russians can destroy we will destroy ourselves.

Russian wine journalism is a sick brood of the ugly wine trade system that is present in Russia nowadays. It’s a system that forbids everything that relates to alcohol information and freedom of speech. Most of “writers” are working in commercial fields – PR, wine trade, wine education, doing other non-wine-related things. And sometimes they write something — just for the fun of it.

So the question I ask myself is: why is the country of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky is not capable of producing decent wine writers? Really, it’s no good blaming the system of wine trade, banned wine advertising and things like that.The advertising ban is in place since 2013 but there are no new wine magazines, and no new wine media with rare exceptions to the some smaller-scale Facebook pages run by wine enthusiasts.

The style of wine writing of those who do write about wines is a disaster – as a rule. Seems like our writers never ask themselves who they are writing for and why on earth they should ever start. It is my honest opinion that a great wine writer doesn’t have to be an MW and understand deeply the wine technology. In Russia our goal (the goal of wine writers) is to attract as many new people to the subject as possible. Let them have a first sip, take a first dive, get inspired by wine. But seems like there are just a few of us who can produce these kinds of texts. There are books you’re not able to stop reading until you finish it. A wine text should be like this.Still, you wonder, what these people are like – people who deliver essential information about wine to the Russian consumer? I took the freedom to divide them into several groups, nothing really serious but…

The immigrants

Live abroad, miss Russia, but not going to come back ever. Their new homes are in France, Italy or the UK, almost always – women. Establish useless and boring wine blogs and web-sites written in bad Russian. Present themselves as known wine bloggers and journalists begging for free nights at wineries at spare time.

Clever fanatics

Owners of wine importing companies like these kind of guys – at least until they start interfering in the business. They are wine geeks in a full sense of this word, knowing wine from experience better than from theory. Great orators, unfortunately at most times do not bother themselves with writing.

Wine maniacs

They are as rare in Russia as they are ready to attack anyone who is daring to write stupid things about wine – whether it is Forbes magazine or just a random person in blogosphere. They mostly write in their facebooks and are known for strong ability to dig the truth out of the deepest and darkest places.

Heavy-weight wine bloggers

Encyclopedia-knowledge guys. Yes, they know really a lot about wine, mostly from theory. Write columns and blogs, often grant their own ratings to wines no one really cares about except for a bunch of followers who just would like to compare them to their own opinion. Quite poor texts but very useful as lecturers for trade.

Old guardia

Dangerous type. Built their reputation in 1990-s writing for different magazines and participating in everything that was about alcohol. In their 50-s there are unable to make a living out of wine business and are very frustrated about the fact. They do publish books that go unsold in the Moscow bookstores. They see all younger wine bloggers as a threat. Write for their poor blogs and choking online resources. Copy news, rewrite what others already wrote, beg for money from government organisations.

Young flock

Dynamic youth coming out from the darkness of the Russian anti-wine legislation. Rockers and non-conformists that have the guts to write what the think in a way they like. A great potential for the Russian wine journalism. Not technical at all – but easy and fun to read. 3-5 years – and they will become strong and mature writers to lead the Russian wine writing ahead. And not only Russian, maybe.

“Devine” writers

Professional “star” writers and journalists with great experience of story-telling for glossy lifestyle and the same star looks. Will write great texts about everything, including wine and oenotourism which they do not so often. Mostly because they are not paid well enough for this.