Mark Squires

The Climb

The role fits a writer working in regions where identity is still being formed and the record is still being written. At the publication, Squires tracks producers as they push beyond local recognition, and the value of the work lies in attention: not only to what is in the glass, but to what a region is becoming as it reaches for a wider market.

Today

He serves as a reviewer at the publication and focuses on emerging regions, a beat that keeps him close to producers seeking wider attention. That beat carries constant movement. Emerging regions bring pressure, ambition and expectation in equal measure, and Squires’ work sits inside that overlap, where vineyards, reputations and market aims meet. The task is evaluation, but also context: to register when a region is gathering force and when a producer is starting to be seen beyond its own borders.

Signature

Mark Squires focuses on emerging wine regions. That focus defines the terms of his criticism. It is a narrow beat, but a productive one: a reviewer looking at what is still taking shape, where new names can still break through and where the reading of a wine is bound up with the stage of the region itself. For Squires, the work rests in that in-between space, where the critic’s job is to notice what is developing before it becomes settled.

In Their Words “As someone who covers mostly emerging regions, I’m often the target of wineries eager to get noticed, to get PR on a big stage and get their brand out on the international market.” “The consumers are in charge, not the sellers.”