1976 • 2026
This fall, Wine Spectator celebrates a half century. The 50th Anniversary Issue will tell that story, and the story of everyone who built it with us.
In 1976, wine in America was a curiosity. Fifty years later, it is a culture, and Wine Spectator has been its chronicle every step of the way. The 50th Anniversary Issue is the once-in-a-generation edition that looks back at how wine conquered the American table, honors the people who made it happen, and looks ahead to the next fifty years.
Anniversary issues are kept on shelves, in cellars, in frames. This is the issue readers will save and collect, and the company you keep inside it will be remembered.
Wine Spectator readers are wine buyers and wine lovers who consume wine as part of their daily lifestyle, whether for everyday or special occasions.
They cellar, age, and return to what they love.
They buy by the case and follow the ratings that move bottles.
They entertain, travel, and set the table for others.
Turn the years: five chapters, one stage. Desktop or phone: click, swipe, or use the arrows.
Vol. 1, No. 1
April 1976. A tabloid newspaper out of San Diego, printed on folded newsprint, with an idea that set it apart from every wine publication of its day: take wine seriously without being technical or elitist. Simple, unpretentious and honest, at a moment when American wine was about to arrive.
The 50th Anniversary Issue is designed as a keepsake: expanded editorial, archival storytelling, the leaders who shaped five decades of wine, and a look at the half century ahead.
For the brands inside it, that means something no ordinary placement offers: permanence. Your message doesn’t run for a month. It stays with the reader.
The kind of issues readers keep on the shelf.
Appear alongside the definitive record of wine’s greatest eras.
The magazine wine professionals and knowledgeable wine consumers still turn to first.
Material extensions by arrangement through September 18.
Fifty years from now, someone will still be reading this issue. Make sure you’re in it.
