[5] After studying oenology at the University of Bordeaux under Émile Peynaud, Davies initially wrote for the Les Amis du Vin magazine.
Writing in 2011, Robert Parker attests to its influence: "I knew of him long before I ever met him (in 1983 at a little chateau in Pomerol)...he was the European writer/Bordeaux expert for the defunct Les Amis du Vin magazine...the first serious wine magazine, and in its day, excellent...Jeffrey's reports from Bordeaux were part of my required reading long before I left the practice of law to pursue the unlikely dream of wine criticism...his reports turned out to be remarkably accurate....I always will wonder what if Les Amis du Vin magazine hadn't floundered and failed (it truly was way ahead of its time), and Jeffrey stayed there to become the world's leading writer on the wines of Bordeaux."
[7] In response to two groups of criticism, British wine writers and Jonathan Nossiter with his controversial 2004 documentary Mondovino who accuse many Bordeaux winemakers of manufacturing vins technologiques, and those who contend that Bordeaux is decreasing in importance.
[8] In his book, Bordeaux: The Wines, The Vineyards, The Winemakers (2009) the well-known British wine writer, Oz Clarke wrote of his status as insider: "If I really want to find out what's going on at the sharp end in Bordeaux, I would probably be spending my time with an American, Jeffrey M.
He stated, "It is not funny, and it’s full of inaccuracies and errors", and compared it to the 2007 book Robert Parker: Anatomie d'un Mythe by Hanna Agostini which he contends was written "out of spite and vengeance".