Michael Steinberger is an American author and journalist, who served as the wine columnist of the internet magazine Slate from 2002 to 2011.
[4] Currently, Steinberger serves as a freelance writer, often involving topics regarding tennis, for publications including The New York Times.
[16][17] In a Slate article titled "Change We Can Taste", written concerning an interview with White House food and beverage operations usher Daniel Shanks published on Bloomberg.com,[18] Steinberger called for a new "wine policy" for the Obama presidency.
[19] Coining the term "Shafer-gate", in reference to the serving of bottles of "extravagant" 2003 Shafer Hillside Select, costing around $250 a bottle, at a November 2008 emergency economic summit, the article described the Bush era tactics of "shock and awe" in terms of wine policy, achieved with what Steinberger calls "fruit bombs"; he wrote that the White House wine service had been "hostage to a profoundly misguided strategy", and pointed to Obama's opportunity "to act swiftly and boldly on the wine front".
[19] When the article was described by Decanter.com to have "slammed the White House wine policy",[20] its contents were quoted and reiterated without any element of satire.