The Manifesto
Pairings Magazine is Here. This is Why.
What started as a passion project that would focus solely on vineyard storytelling and winemaker essays, Pairings Magazine, has evolved dramatically. From a physical magazine to online features and even tasting events, the people here are passionate about sharing the perfect Pairings for the good life. It’s also no secret to those who know us that Billy and Sam love the hospitality industry. So we expanded our plan to include in-person events called Tastings by Pairings Magazine with the hope that we could bring great wine stories directly to the consumer. As we continued to brainstorm, we grew more passionate about building something that could highlight the best parts of the industry, make wine and wine education accessible to everyone, and even help wine producers to thrive. This is C&C Media.
C&C Media publisher William Cole (left), and editor-in-chief S. A. Culyer pictured at this year’s Nati Wine Festival
Throughout that evolution, and at the core of everything we do, there remained a conviction that wine should be approachable, celebrated, and recognized as a product of the people and for the people. At the heart of our ambitious effort is the belief that wine represents a throughline in human history, serving as a unifying thread that brings together cultures & traditions, artistry & ingenuity, passions & storytelling. In an industry that has become handcuffed by sterile scoring systems, conglomerate-dominated distribution practices, and outdated marketing, we seek to democratize wine and break down the barriers that have made wine feel out of touch and out of reach. Through a collection of short-form and long-form writings, tasting events, reimagined distribution models, and promotional partnerships, we aim to demystify wine and bridge the gap between the people who make it and the people who drink it.
The wine & spirits industry is currently facing a series of issues that are weakening its prospects for the future and creating all new challenges that the industry must overcome if we want to see the high-quality craftsmanship that consumers have come to love. Outside forces, led by a scoring that encourages winemakers to abandon unique terrier-driven artistry, conglomerates that have nearly squeezed the middle-market out of existence, and distribution channels that leave small, high-quality producers at the mercy of a system that favors “Big Box Brands,” are creating huge barriers to growth. Compound those obstacles with marketing that is blind to contemporary consumers’ expectations of transparency and ignores evolving consumer trends, along with the industry’s internal unwillingness to meet consumers where they are. All of this creates an “out of reach” aura around wine that leaves younger consumers viewing wine as isolating and uninviting rather than exclusive and aspirational.
The “Parkerization” of wine scoring has led wine makers to gradually alter their production methods, incentivizing stylistic choices that favored bold, heavily-extracted, high-alcohol wines in order to secure impressive scores and publicity. Over time, the prioritization of scores led to a fundamental shift in the production landscape, leading many producers to manufacture wines that met a certain taste, rather than crafting wine to reflect the character and culture of the region or the terrier from which it was grown. Even as other scoring institutions have emerged (James Suckling, Wine Spectator, Decanter, Jancise Robinson, etc.), these rating systems still strip the wine of their human & culinary context. The pursuit of a technically perfect wine that suits the subjective tastes of a given scoring institution forces producers to abandon the traditions on which many great wines were built, and, for that matter, ignore the way that most wine is actually consumed: pairing wine with food.
To address this, we propose a new, dual-axis scoring system; a system that acknowledges the mastery and skill required to craft a technically perfect wine, while also recognizing that wine and food are at their best when enjoyed together. We believe that this dual-axis scoring, with one 50-point axis measuring technical excellence and another 50-point axis measuring pairing synergy, is the solution to the industry’s scoring problem. It more appropriately honors the farmers, winemakers, and other producers by allowing them to escape from homogenized score-chasing and return to artistry. Simultaneously, it returns power to the consumers by giving them a better tool with which to make purchasing decisions; a tool that is inherently flexible, educational, and empowering. And while our dual-axis scoring system disrupts the commercialized, dogmatic practices that are currently in place, it still respects the infrastructure of a 100-point scale that many consumers, wholesalers, auctionhouses, and other industry players have come to rely upon to quickly and easily identify a top-tier product.
You can expect frequent publications of ratings, reviews, and pairing suggestions on our Pairings Magazine website, along with the other short-form and long-form content that we originally envisioned for this project, striving to provide a trusted and authoritative alternative for oenophiles and newcomers alike. The consistent release of new content will give consumers honest feedback that they can trust, while the interviews and producer profiles adds even greater depth to our scoring system, empowering makers to pursue new levels of creativity. And as important as that is, we’ll also attempt to address other issues plaguing the industry.
While big brand conglomerates dominate U.S. distribution systems, smaller family-owned producers are being squeezed. They can’t compete with “Big Box” brands like Trader Joe’s and Costco, who pump out mass produced wines at value prices, taking tiny margins on massive volume. They also don’t have the brand recognition, marketing budget, or historical clout to compete against legacy brands that demand an expensive, high margin price tag. So while inflation and tariffs have pushed prices higher across the board, consumers have tightened up, and the middle-tier wine market that small producers always relied on has dried up. Consumers are either opting for that big brand value bottle or choosing to “splurge” on the more expensive options, leaving the middle-tier to be seen as too expensive to be considered a value and too cheap to be considered premium quality. This is a storm that had been rolling in for several years, but was surprisingly put on hold during the pandemic years when consumers stocked up on wines at all price-points, largely through direct-to-consumer (DTC) services like mail-order subscriptions. But the post-pandemic consumers have once again tightened their spending habits. Especially in the new era of inflation and tariffs, the DTC subscriptions have seen widespread cancellations, reinitiating the squeeze on middle-tier wines.
This is where Tastings can become a crucial player introducing consumers to the small, passionate producers that are often overshadowed by the bigger brands. In addition to educating and entertaining consumers, we see Tastings as an opportunity to partner with, and advocate for, the wines that are most deserving of celebration. Oftentimes, these are the same small, family-owned wines that are being squeezed out of the market. By positioning ourselves as local brand ambassadors, we can begin to disrupt the outdated, allocation-based distribution model–albeit at a hyper-localized level. We reconceptualized the standard wine tasting event from a strictly consumer-side Sommelier-guided wine tour, into producer partnerships that bypass the stranglehold that big brands have on traditional distribution methods. We aren’t just pouring wines for the customer. The intimate setting of a wine tasting allows us to tell the story of the vineyards and winemakers that brought the wine to life, forging a deeper connection between producers and consumers, thus laying the foundation for future brand loyalty.
The nature of private wine tastings also allows us to directly address (at small, but impactful scale) the transparency and approachability issues that have kept younger drinkers from choosing wine. Market trends and industry data shows that Millennial and Gen Z consumers view wine as a beverage of last resort, but still elevate it to being the drink that they reserve for special occasions. They rarely choose to drink on weekdays, and even weekend drinking sees these younger consumers choosing ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails like canned cocktails, hard seltzers, and other more easily approachable options. They can go to the store and instantly know what to expect when they buy a “Tropical Margarita” RTD. Compare that to the experience of walking down the aisle of wines, where beautifully labelled bottles of wine, however visually appealing they may be, provide the inexperienced drinker with zero guidance about what the wine will taste like.
Our combination of food-centric scoring, epicurean writings and content, and the guided tastings will help to give consumers the tools they need to understand what’s inside the bottle. The dual-axis scoring encourages consumers to try different food pairings so that they understand how a wine’s pairing synergy will change with different entree choices. This gives consumers more confidence when shopping. The recurring articles that you’ll see in the coming months, like our monthly “Drive-Thru Sommelier,” empowers readers to reposition wine from a “special occasion” item, and shows how it can be enjoyed with a fast food dinner on a Wednesday night. Similarly, our wine tastings will feature fast food pairings, boutique celebrity brands, and other themes that shift the perception away from isolation and toward approachability.
This is a publication that will dive headlong into the people, personalities, and stories of the hospitality industry, with the celebration of viticulture as the core foundation. And even as we work to bring the stories to life, we believe that it isn’t enough to merely share great stories. To write essays while the industry suffers is akin to playing music while the Titanic sank. Therefore, we’ll use our platform to reject the dominant scoring systems, turn away from outdated distribution models, and chip away at the mega brands’ mismanagement of this historical (and delicious!) agricultural product. We cannot merely write beautiful and engaging stories in the hopes that the industry will be resurrected. We feel compelled to take action and find creative ways to disrupt the outdated frameworks that permeate the universe of wine. We will write. And we will do so much more.
