Wine Spectator reviews thousands of wines each year, evaluating all accepted wine samples in rigorously controlled blind tastings of flights with their peers. (See About Our Tastings for details.) Our goal is to review wines that are important and available to our readers. In most cases, we review only wines that are distributed in major U.S. markets, and regardless, all foreign wines must be imported into the United States.

Tastings are managed by teams of tasting coordinators in our New York and Napa offices, with each office overseeing specific regions. Most of the wines are supplied and sent by wineries (for domestic wines) or importers (for wines from outside the United States). Please note: We cannot assist with U.S. Customs and Border Protection clearance.

All wines must go through our wine sample submission process. If you produce or represent a wine you would like Wine Spectator to review, please follow the directions below. Do not send samples until the submission has been reviewed and approved by our tasting department; unapproved samples will be discarded.

How to Submit

To submit wines for review:

• Download the Wine Spectator Sample Information Spreadsheet to your desktop and complete the form with all required details.
• Email the form to the appropriate Wine Spectator office. See below.
• Await confirmation and approval from our team by email.
• Ship samples only after approval is communicated by email.

Which Office Should You Contact?

Each of our offices covers specific regions. Samples sent to the incorrect office will not be reviewed and cannot be forwarded. Shipping information will be provided when the wine submission is approved.

Napa Office: California, Washington, Oregon and other U.S. states (other than New York); Australia, New Zealand and South America.

Contact: napatastings@mshanken.com

New York Office: France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, South Africa, Portugal, Israel, Greece and other international; New York state. 

Contact: nytasting@mshanken.com

Additional Information

We publish all reviews within one to four weeks after tasting, but wine samples are not always tasted immediately upon receipt. In order to time the publishing of reviews to a wine’s U.S. release date, we suggest initiating the sample submission process one to four months before release or as close to release as possible. Wine samples submitted after the U.S. release date may not be considered.

There is no fee to submit wines or receive a review.

Forms must be complete and accurate; incomplete or incorrect submissions may be rejected.