Antonio Galloni grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, where his parents retailed Italian wines and his maternal grandfather talked to him of his love for Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône. Galloni studied jazz composition and guitar at Boston’s Berklee College of Music; he went on to play electric and acoustic guitar and mandolin in Berklee’s Country Music Ensemble for two years before “burning out” and getting a job waiting tables, where he became exposed to the wines of California. He then got a job at Putnam Investments in Boston and was sent on assignment to Milan, where he fell in love with Italian wines. There followed an MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management, but “Barolo resonated more deeply than options and derivatives” and he started a newsletter focusing on the wines of Piedmont in 2003. Piedmont Report soon had subscribers in more than 25 countries. Galloni joined The Wine Advocate as Italian wine critic in 2006 and in 2013 he left to start Vinous.

See also https://cluboenologique.com/story/wine-websites-behind-the-paywall-vinous/

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

Starting Vinous is the best career decision I ever made. Our vision was to create a platform for wine lovers that would attract the brightest writing talent. I think our track record in that speaks for itself. 

Do you consider your career progression to be conventional?

Non-conventional for sure, but each of my experiences has given me essential tools and prepared me for what we are doing today. I did not attend university but instead went to music school. There I learned composition, improvisation and how to be a bandleader, all concepts that apply to Vinous. My MBA studies gave me the confidence to experiment and try new things. My prior career in finance taught me how to lead an organization in times of severe uncertainty and stress. And of course, it all started with my parents, who taught me how to be an entrepreneur.

Do you consider yourself a disruptor – how?

The legacy landscape is pretty staid. Decanter, Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator - the big wine publications were established decades ago. Vinous will be eight years old this year. We are the only new large-scale, diversified publication that has been successful in wine in the last several decades. 

Vinous has emerged as a major review publication and has innovated in putting complementary services together (such as Delectable to help people track their wine experiences and Cellar Watch to manage and value cellars). We have introduced products and services with the aim of delivering information how people want it, when they want it. Although you could call this disruption because it changed the status quo of how people interface with wine, we instead view it as helping to grow the pie. We facilitate better decision making and help others achieve success. “Constructive disruption” might better characterize our approach.

My view is that I want to see the culture of wine grow, and if it grows then Vinous will be just fine – I’m not interested in disenfranchising other publications [Vinous has joined forces with Wine Spectator to mount an auction in support of the hospitality industry].

Taking on Delectable is a key move toward full vertical integration…

Exactly. Delectable’s audience will become the collectors of the future. They are 10-15 years younger than the Vinous audience and also 40% female [Galloni also makes the point that Delectable subscribers are slightly above Vivino’s in that they go for Bordeaux Superieur, Fronsac, Village level Burgundy rather than supermarket wines.] The difference between Delectable and Vinous is like the difference between eating at the chicken joint down the street, and going to Clare Smyth. You’d be happy with a crowdsourced review for the first but for the Michelin-starred restaurant you might want a professional review

Do you consider yourself to be agile? ie would you be able to cope with an existential threat such as the pandemic meant for the hospitality industry?

We had our best year ever in 2020, so I would say, ‘yes’. We met the challenges we faced by innovating and adapting. Our critics are used to spending months on the road tasting wine. This wasn’t possible but we’ve published nearly 30,000 reviews since travel restrictions were introduced. We moved all of our events online and were thrilled at the reception of our Vinous Learn program focused on Napa Valley, our Festa del Piemonte week-long series of events, and smaller seminars like our Roumier masterclass. We also introduced Vinous Live, a series of interviews with the most influential figures in our industry. Lastly, we launched new products, including our new API program [this allows trade subscribers to link Vinous reviews to Liv-ex performance data for integration into their own platforms]. 

What is the level of knowledge of your wine audience?

One of the things we have learned during the pandemic is that our audience is mostly high-end collectors and wine lovers who are on that trajectory.

Vinous is almost pure digital but in many ways it’s old-fashioned [ie Vinous is mapping, in print, the entire vineyard of California]. Do you think it’s important to have that analogue connection to an audience such as yours?

The pace at which wines are released and their sheer numbers makes digital the only truly effective format for a publication. But our reviews are temporal – the reviews are published and the wines are bought and you wonder what is left of what you’ve done. My goal is to make a personal and permanent contribution to our field; the maps have the potential to be that - they are the most extensive maps ever made of the California wine region. I think in a generation’s time this will be looked at as an incredible contribution - much more so than what I think of the 2008 Branaire Ducru. They’re not economically viable but we do them because we love them.

You make the point that your entire audience (trade, consumer, at all levels) is very wine-centric yet you have a lot of lifestyle, restaurant reviews, music reviews etc

I always want this to be more than just reviews: it’s about engagement. Our audience is a community and we need to offer the complete holistic experience – for example with online seminars they will buy the wines and I’ll do a zoom class to discuss them.  Our lifestyle content is “nice to have”; our writers are creative people and creative people need outlets – an album review is some way for them to take all his energy and channel it and come back to wine refreshed.

What is your attitude toward influencers? 

I am a big fan of anyone who can increase wine culture and the appreciation for wine, irrespective of their medium or approach. The best will rise. Neal Martin and I were the influencers of 15 years ago, pre-Instagram. Neal had Wine Journal which was free and that was a stepping stone to the most influential wine site [Martin was taken on by Wine Advocate in 2006 and joined Vinous in 2017]. My first site was free then by voluntary contribution then subscribers.

That’s a wonderful thing and nothing to be afraid of. Influencers have the potential to do what we do. We have a writing competition because we believe in creating an environment for younger voices.

My biggest influences are Robert Parker and Allen Meadows. When I read their writing, I am reading the opinions of critics who started as avid consumers. That passion eventually led to them starting successful businesses, something that is very hard to do. I feel like I am reading reviews by someone who has been buying, drinking and collecting wines for decades. They convey the same thrills and disappointments as the rest of us do when wines exceed or don’t live up to expectations. That is very different from reviews written by people who come from the trade.

Sadly, there is not much true wine criticism left today. What we have are many people who write tasting notes, some of them very well, and who assign scores. But there are very few critics who actually offer original critical opinion and insight, which means calling out underperformers when merited.

Should an up-and-coming critic be a generalist or a specialist?

Once the world sees you as a specialist you can take that standard and apply it to other areas. When I was at Wine Advocate I took on Champagne. My specialism was Italy but no-one doubted my credentials because I was established at a high level as an Italian wine critic. As a specialist you’re not narrowing your options, you’re really well known for something and that puts you in an elite category.

You can also command higher fees as a specialist…

It is essential that we pay decent rates in the wine business otherwise people are going to decide that wine is too difficult and they will go and work in finance. There has to be a path to make them feel they can make a living. If not we’re going to lose people to other industries

What are your views on the wine landscape and how you feel the disruption of the last 12 months will shape it in the future. 

Clearly COVID-19 has been deeply troubling on a human and personal level. I believe we will be feeling the toll of this pandemic for many years to come. At the same time, crisis creates opportunity. We continue to look at everything we do and think about how we can continuously improve how we deliver our services. I have never been more excited about our business and our prospects than I am now.