Riedel v Hosemaster: A letter from Wine Writers' Circle of Canada
As member of the Wine Writers' Circle of Canada and in support of all WWCC, I would like to share with you the following statements which I received this morning from Dean Tudor, Hon. Treaurer. We don’t like bullies.
" You have probably been following the heavy-handed response of Georg Riedel to being the butt of Ron Washam aka Hosemaster’s latest satire. See
http://hosemasterofwine.blogspot.fr/2015/08/riedel-threatens-hosemaster-of-wine.html
Mike Steinberger, Jon Bonné, Tim Atkin, and I ( and sic, fellow member signatories), are planning to send the following letter to Riedel and would love to have you as a fellow signatory - as well as, ideally, enlisting your help in publicising it.
Dear Mr. Riedel:
We are writing in response to the letters that your attorneys in the U.S. and the U.K. sent last week to Mr. Ron Washam and Mr. Tim Atkin, threatening both men with legal action in regard to a recent article written by Mr. Washam and published on Mr. Atkin’s eponymous site.
Mr. Washam is a wine writer who specializes in satire. Over the years, his satire has been aimed at numerous figures in the wine world, including some of us. The articles that he publishes on his site, Hosemaster of Wine, and that he contributes to Mr. Atkin’s site are clearly, unmistakably satirical.
Although your dispute with Mr. Atkin has now been resolved, Mr. Washam informs us that there has been no resolution to your threat of legal action against him. This is an unwarranted assault on free expression, and we demand that you immediately withdraw it. If you fail to do so, we will take it upon ourselves to call as much attention as possible to your risible conduct in this matter.
Sincerely,
