Mike Steinberger from Slate has a compelling piece talking about the democratization of wine and how the internet is becoming the watchdog for wine critics. In it, he talks about Robert Parker and his publication Wine Advocate and how recently it has come under scrutiny due to its contributors accepting trade funded trips and samples. Apparently, Mr. Parker has avoided these perks as it might be viewed as unethical in terms of his objectivity towards the wines he reviews. There is also mention of the Cellartracker web application that I personally use and recommend to anyone who is looking for crowd sourced reviews of wine.
Link to the article here: Democratization of Wine
Ciao!