October 29, 2026 (New York, NY) — Marvin R. Shanken, founder and chairman of M. Shanken Communications, died on October 29. He was 83. The publisher behind Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado and Whisky Advocate helped shape the American wine industry and left a lasting mark on publishing, hospitality, education and philanthropy.
For more than half a century, Shanken’s company worked both sides of the drinks business. Its trade titles gave suppliers, distributors and retailers the sales data and market analysis they planned around, while its consumer magazines spoke directly to the people who buy and drink wine, spirits and cigars.
From Wall Street to the Wine Trade
Born October 4, 1943, in New Haven, Connecticut, Shanken earned a business degree from the University of Miami in 1965 and later served on the university’s board of trustees. He began his career on Wall Street in 1968.
He moved into publishing in 1972, buying Impact, a newsletter covering the beverage alcohol business, with $5,000 borrowed from his sister Elaine. He kept his day job until 1975, then turned to Impact full time. Its annual research study, first published in 1976, grew into the Shanken’s Impact Databank reports, and in 1977 he started the Impact Marketing Seminar, a yearly forum for industry leaders. The company later added the trade publications Market Watch and Shanken News Daily.
Building Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator was started by Bob Morrisey in San Diego in 1976 as a free newspaper available in wine shops. When Morrisey could no longer keep it going, Shanken bought it, and the July 16, 1979, issue was his first as publisher.
Under his ownership the staff relocated from San Diego to San Francisco in 1982, the magazine began scoring wines on a 100-point scale in 1985, and a 1987 redesign turned the newsprint tabloid into a full magazine. Through each change, Shanken kept the publication aimed at consumers rather than the trade.
Restaurants, Events and New Titles
In 1981 Shanken created the Wine Spectator Grand Award to single out restaurants with exceptional wine lists and point readers toward them. The Award of Excellence and Best of Award of Excellence followed in 1985, rounding out the Restaurant Awards program that wine-focused restaurants still enter every year.
That same year he co-hosted a Grand Award banquet that marked the beginning of the Wine Experience, which brings leading wine producers together with consumers for tastings and seminars.
The Wine Experience became a template. Shanken launched Cigar Aficionado in the fall of 1992 and held its first Big Smoke gathering for cigar enthusiasts in 1993. In 2010 he bought Malt Advocate, renamed it Whisky Advocate and expanded its WhiskyFest events. M. Shanken Communications also acquired Food Arts.
Giving Back
Shanken founded the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation in 1983 to support students preparing for careers in winemaking and hospitality. Producers donate the wines poured at the Wine Experience, its net proceeds go to the foundation, and the event has raised more than $40 million for scholarships and grants.
In 2009 he and his wife, Hazel, joined golfer Ernie Els and his wife, Liezl, parents of an autistic son, in founding the Els for Autism Foundation. Its fundraising built the Els Center of Excellence in South Florida, an education and recreation center for children with autism that opened in 2015.
A longtime Gilbert & Sullivan fan, he began sponsoring field trips in 2000 that brought New York City schoolchildren to performances by the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. In February 2019 the Association of Magazine Media honored his career with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Family
Shanken married Hazel Rudy, a financial executive, in 1981. She serves on the M. Shanken Communications board of advisers, and their daughter, Jessica Shanken Reid, is the company’s executive vice president for business development.
He is survived by Hazel; his sisters, Elaine and Susan; his daughters, Jessica Shanken Reid, Samantha Shanken Baker and Allison Cohen; and four grandchildren, Jake, Lauren, Asher and Jordan.
For more on his life and career, read Wine Spectator‘s full obituary: Marvin R. Shanken, Visionary Publisher Who Transformed the Worlds of Wine and Cigars, Dies at 83.
