The success of Burghound.com is due to the fact that Allen Meadows hit on a formula two decades ago and has never diverted from it: if he can save you from buying one bad bottle of Burgundy Grand Cru, then you’ve repaid the (relatively high) annual subscription.

The former CFO of a listed insurance company retired from finance in 1999, intending to write a book on Burgundy, his great passion and a region he had visited dozens of times. This idea morphed into a newsletter which his Burgundy-obsessed friends told him was a great idea - but warned he would never make any money from it. From that came Burghound.com, launched in 2001 as the first online-only information source on a single region. From the start he aimed to be comprehensive, reasoning that the top domaines were well-covered already by people like Clive Coates and Steven Tanzer and it was the lesser-known properties that were going unnoticed. Also in his favour was the fact that Robert Parker had more or less ceased to cover Burgundy (he was much disliked by Burgundians). Burghound.com now has subscribers in over 64 countries and nearly all 50 states. Meadows is entirely self-financed and spends over five months a year in Burgundy, visiting more than 300 domaines. The site is run by his business partner Erica Meadows; their son Chris Meadows joined as a partner in 2011.

Burghound.com can be clunky and difficult to navigate – Meadows himself says “it’s not the easiest site to use” – but it has a devoted audience of Burgundy aficionados. Coverage is 90% Burgundy with a nod to other Oregon, Champagne and other regions where Pinot Noir predominates. Meadows focusses on the old-fashioned values of honesty, integrity and a clear, unadorned writing style. There is almost no lifestyle content. “I believe my readers pay me for information that they can’t get elsewhere,” he says, “not for music and lifestyle articles.”

What would you consider was the most important decision of your career in wine?

The most fundamental decision of all was just to go into the business, to say “I’m a critic.” I was looking for something to do when I retired so I thought of a Burgundy- centric newsletter. My Burgundy-obsessed drinking buddies loved the idea but said I’d starve. I’d been going to Burgundy for many years as an enthusiast so it was a shock to many of the French, they said “How on earth can you change metier?” and they were incredulous – “You can earn a living doing that?” Also in France there is a disconnect between being a journalist and an author – the latter are respected, even idolised, and the former not so much.

What was the competition like at the time?

As a consumer of critical information about Burgundy I was not getting what I wanted. There were very competent critics like Clive Coates, Steve Tanzer and Robert Parker but because they had other responsibilities than Burgundy they could only do so much. All the A-producers were being covered but the Bs weren’t. That’s  the sweet spot for a collector. You could only read about the Grand Crus but they were rapidly becoming unaffordable – and the brilliance of Burgundy is its diversity not only of wines but of producers.

How did you finance your startup?

At that time [2000] it was $50k to start the business, which is  initial financing and  then spending 3-4 months in Burgundy – that’s now expanded to 6 months a year. I am completely independent, I pay everything myself, which takes an investment, and then there are the back office and computer systems, a searchable database and the paywall costs. My first visit as a professional was autumn of 2000, and first issue January 2001

Was anyone else doing this sort of thing online at the time?

No, and that was what made it so risky as a business model. Burghound was the first to be majority online with no print edition, and the first to be dedicated to one region. That wasn’t the model at the time – Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Decanter covered the whole world. But that model, and its implied compliment, seduced many producers. Six months after I came out there was the Riesling Report – it lasted a few months, partially because they only charged $15 for it – if you’re going to fund it yourself it’s never going to be economically feasible unless you have a boatload of subscribers

What is Burghound’s USP?

The USP is if I can save you from buying one bad bottle of Grand Cru Burgundy then you have paid for a year’s subscription. Even ordinary Burgundy starts at $30. Known communes like Vosne or Chambolle or Volnay, you’re at $50 to $75 – in Vosne you’re over $100 very quickly, and four figures is not that unusual. 

This is the reason this model only works for Burgundy – the cost of a buying mistake is so high. One reader said going to a wine store without Burghound is like going to a gunfight with a knife.

What’s the median age of your subscribers?

The Pandemic has been good for us -  we have more subs than when we started. Burgundy usually attracts people who have attained a certain level of affluence and that comes with age. I would guess they start in their mid-30s and go up to people in their 70s and 80s (sometimes they say they are at an age where they don’t buy new wine - the goal is just to drink what they have). Between 40-45% are professionals, and then there are the seriously geeked-out, which is 50%.

In Asia they tend to be a little younger – we do many events, some very expensive, which pull in one kind of crowd, and educational events designed to pull in a younger crowd who eventually may become my subscribers. 

Do you put any value on lifestyle articles?

I was in a rock band - mostly country music, I play a little guitar. I’m a huge music fan but I feel no need to make musical analogies. What Neal Martin does [the critic posts regular music reviews on Vinous] seems to work for him, but I believe my readers pay me for information that they can’t get elsewhere, not for music and lifestyle articles. I do a guide to visiting the Côte d’Or and I’ve done a few educational videos – I’ve toyed with doing more but I’m so damn busy…

What’s your view of your competitors?

My view is that we’re all in the same lake together. Everyone does Burgundy to a certain extent but I’ve enjoyed enough success not to feel threatened: the wine world is big enough. My readers may read six other guys but in the end they pay me for my point of view. A guy who helped me get started told me I’d find out the wine trough is small, and politics can get vicious, but I never thought that was the case

What are the key attributes of a critic?

A critic must have knowledge of the area and be competent; be able to communicate in order to resonate with the readership; act as the go-between for consumers and producers.

Some of these are easier than others. For the first you need language skills. You cannot ask someone for inside info in a second language; if you’re going to be serious, you have to have the language skills for getting info and getting credibility, and paying your host the compliment that you’re serious about understanding their region.

The second is obvious – if you can’t communicate, you lose the reader’s attention.

The third is the most difficult and the most important. You have to be sceptical and cynical, but there’s no point in doing a gratuitous hatchet job. If you are honest you gain the trust of the producer and the reader – as soon as they feel you’re not being honest, then you’re finished. If a producer is irate, I have to stand by what I wrote but I always offer to re-taste. I say to people starting out, if you’re welcomed everywhere then you’re not doing your job. There are places I can’t go now. If the producer doesn’t like what you’ve written, then it’s a sign you’re doing your job.

What’s your view of influencers?

If there is someone who can influence someone else to pick up a bottle of basic Burgundy, then that’s great. How they arrive on Burgundy’s doorstep is immaterial – the important thing is that they arrive.

When it comes to serious criticism, bloggers face the classic problem - in order to get in the door you need to have a body of work behind you, but to get that body of work you need to get in the door. When a producer gets a request for samples from someone they haven’t heard of, the default assumption is that someone wants free wine. The irony is that it might have been possible 30 years ago but today, if you’re not a professional, they won’t be interested. That’s the brutal reality – Burgundy is not easy to access, even for keen amateurs who have been going for decades.

Generalist or specialist – which is best for someone starting out?

There are two arguments here. First, it’s difficult to be young and be a specialist – how much experience can you have? Unless you come from a Burgundy background, the perspective you get from being a generalist is very useful when you decide to specialise. But then again, it’s hard to get paid writing about Albanian whites.