Some Thoughts on that Marissa Ross Article & Toxic Masculinity in Wine

Natural wine world chisme is always spilling...

Last week, an article about the career of Marissa Ross as a natural wine writer by Business Insider came out and wow, the tea was hot.

If you’re new-ish to natural wine, here’s the context: Marissa Ross, an infamous wine writer and the original ‘wine influencer’, did her first interview after abruptly leaving the wine world in 2020 amidst a series of dramatic moments which were fueled by natural wine gossip and politics. Before all of this though, she was the the Wine Editor at Bon Appetit (during Bon App cultural peak) and author of the book Wine. All The Time (which was my first real introduction to wine literature) and a key player in natural wine.

From 2016-2019, Marissa Ross was the leading voice of the natural wine movement and I might even go as far as saying she was almost entirely responsible for bridging the gap between those in the movement and the general American public. Her impact was great and at the time, Bon App was the most important voice in food for everyday, non-industry people. Ross’ articles on natural wine brought the movement to people's attention who were not initially part of it (folks outside of wine, restaurants and drink culture). For this, she absolutely deserves credit.

Marissa Ross was vocal, strongly opinionated and unapologetic in her stances, which included calling out the toxic culture in wine, especially when it came to the treatment of women in the industry and sexual harassment. This pissed people off though and created a shit storm of continuous drama around her. You should read the article here to get more context and understanding about what caused her to leave the industry all together.

To be honest, I do not blame her for leaving. I watched it happen in real time; and while I do feel like some of what happened was a downward spiral of self-sabotage, I don’t think she should ever apologize for speaking her mind or submit to industry norms when they are toxic and harmful. For an industry that is now bursting at the seams with popularity, she has never really gotten credit for her work in making that happen (nor was she ever really compensated fairly for her influence, apparently).

To me, the catalyst of her leaving altogether stems from the wine industry’s deeply misogynistic values—that no matter hard we try to change, still exist embedded in the culture. Sure, there are movements within the natural wine industry seeking to make change, but damn it’s an uphill battle. And while they might not be as outwardly oppressive as they were even just 4 years ago, they’re still felt.

I feel it when I get Napa wine bros in my DMs trying to mansplain natural wine to me (after they’ve asked me for ‘help’ understanding the topic) or when troll accounts try to undermine points I’m trying to make in a 15 second video—all minor offenses compared to the harassment other women have received; but it’s obvious that there is a layer contempt from some in the industry. There is no place worse for this though, then the natural wine subreddit (r/naturalwine) and the more broad: r/wine.

Most men won’t say shit to your face but once they’re given permission to hide behind anonymous reddit accounts, they really let their feelings flow. The need to flex knowledge and stroke their egos by proving the most minute details wrong is an epidemic that seems to occur primarily in male reddit users. (r/naturalwine seems to be made up wine industry bros and people who wish they were). I have seen them pick apart the most innocent of newbie wine reviews, go out of their way to scoff at the use of the word “haul” to describe wine purchases and roll their eyes at every single recommendation they deem inferior to whatever wines they decided are exceptional and argue with each other in the comments. It’s honestly so ridiculous and laughable, I find myself hate reading the threads for sport (but to my own detriment, honestly).

Business Insider posted the article in r/naturalwine and the response was horribly toxic. The subreddit is already pretty pathetic place for (presumably) men to go and dick swing about who knows more about which wine region and feel better about themselves. But this particular thread is abnormally vile. There are over 28 comments (only 2 being in defense of Ross). Any pro-Ross comments are immediately downvoted. Lots of "professional victim" and "she's so annoying" and other negative commentary that seems to serve no purpose other than to bully and agree with each other about how they dislike her. But what it really sounds like to me is that they don't like when women speak out or have a voice bolder than their own.

Marissa Ross has never done anything specifically wrong or bad. Most of the online hate she has received is because people (mostly men) find her ‘annoying’. Wine bros and snobs may not agree with her contemporary writing style or opinions, but she has never done anything realllyyy to warrant the type of disrespect mentioned in the article (ie Stagiere's outlandish quote half way through). Which, frankly, is the entire point of Ross’ qualms with the industry: men still treat women like shit and nobody cares to do anything about it (including other women).

I watched her fall from natty wine in real time, back in 2020. From my vantage point, Ross did not exit gracefully and there was a considerable amount of self-sabotage after a certain point. But I also think a lot of her responses came as an act of self defense against the wolves of the internet and the wine industry.

This article, while a bit chaotic, shows how easily the internet can destroy something. To be basically ‘erased’ (their words, not mine) from the current natural wine conversation in a matter of years says two things: the internet is ruthless and the rate of change is happening too fast to even keep up. All of this happened just 3 years ago and many of you who are new to wine may not even know who she is. The response to the article on reddit shows me another two things: all men are trash (lol jk, kinda) and misogyny is alive and well in the wine industry (as well as racism and sexism and a lot of other things). It’s a shame, really, because while on the surface things seem nice and pleasant, I know there is a lot of work to be done out here.

Anyway. Those are just my thoughts. What do you think?

spill tea, not wine.