Mea Culpa: Cameron Hughes Receivership Article Too Hard On Southern

After eight years of operating Wine Industry Insight, I needed to issue my first correction on May 5 when I misread the column headings in the receiver’s inventory documents in the premium Wine Executive News version:

CORRECTION: Cameron Hughes pointed out that Wine Industry Insight misread the tiny type on the last in the receiver’s inventory report.

Hughes noted in an email: “our case goods inventory is not $135K but rather 135,000 cases of wine and bulk wine is not $118K but 118,000 gallons.”

We regret the error.

And Now Southern

And now, my second correction in as many weeks from the same article.

Like the first correction, this one comes from reading several hundred pages of court documents … too fast. No excuses. I was careless and should have spent more time on the documents and I did not. For that, I apologize.

The second mistake was in the free version  and involves the three tables below. I focused too much on the main topic heading “Major Delinquencies” and not enough on the actual aging.

Despite Union Bank’s inclusion of Southern Wine & Spirits under that heading, it’s clear that they should not have been there.

Equally clear is the fact that a closer reading of the document should have caught that.

 Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa

I apologize to Cameron Hughes and to Southern for not performing my job to my own standards.

And I am especially sorry to my 22,000+ readers. My first duty is to create and deliver accurate, complete news in context. I failed at that because I did not spend the necessary time on the court documents.

This was a bone-headed mistake that could have been easily prevented. I am embarrassed and determined not to do this again.