Marvin Shanken, publisher of Wine Spectator, had died

San Francisco Chronicle · Jess Lander · 2026-11-05 12:00 UTC

Marvin Shanken, publisher of the influential U.S. wine magazine for 47 years, and who played a vital role in the California wine boom, died last week at 83.

The California wine industry pins much of its soaring growth throughout the 1980s, ’90s and aughts on three things: the 1976 Judgment of Paris blind tasting; the 1991 60 Minutes “French Paradox” segment, which linked wine to heart health; and critic Robert Parker’s wine scores. (The 2004 indie movie Sideways gets most of the credit for the Pinot Noir boom.) Another leading contributor is often forgotten in that accounting: Marvin Shanken, who was publisher and editor of Wine Spectator, the most influential U.S. wine magazine, for 47 years.

Shanken, who transformed Wine Spectator from a small, bi-weekly tabloid to a glossy lifestyle magazine that reaches more than 3 million people a month across the U.S., died last week at 83 from glioblastoma.

Wine Spectator, which turned 50 this year, covers wine around the world, but under Shanken’s leadership, it became one of the first wine publications to dig deep into California wine. It was instrumental in turning American drinkers, who favored European bottlings, onto domestic wines from California. Napa Valley has, arguably, been the greatest beneficiary of Wine Spectator’s coverage, which effectively placed it on a pedestal alongside the renowned regions of the globe, including Bordeaux and Burgundy.

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