During these last decades wine has not escaped attacks from the food industry. On the vine as well as in the cellar, the metamorphosis was impressive. Progress is everywhere, chemistry intervention systematic. Diversity runs dry in this extremely controlled environment. Wine has become a product of formidable technicality and today’s man is satisfied. We should reach perfection with every vintage and this, to the detriment of nature. Besides, nature no longer has a say. Nature is subdued and bends itself to the wishes of the wine industry because the financial stakes have become colossal…
Symptomatic of our time: we reduce risk taking by obtaining an average product in the end, standardized, which insures comfortable margins and, we are told, responds to the taste of the greatest number, as if this was always right.
Should we be happy with these average wines; lifestyle wines for afterwork, as defined by marketing criteria. Quickly consumed and quickly forgotten.
AND SHOULD WE BE MOURNING DIVERSITY AND DISCOVERY, THE SOURCES OF ALL WINE PLEASURES?
From the love of making wine we have moved to the era of well wrapped up storytelling. Wine marketing applies itself to make the consumer dream of these standardized products which are the result of opinion studies. We have left the cellar keys far too long with communicators (and sometimes with oenologists) but we can still change these ways.
We would like to drink juices with a beautiful soul and plenty of surprises. The industry has overseen our taste for too long. Progress pretends to have saved wine but, instead, has only served us beverages which have lost any trace of life !
Wine is a live product and must remain so. Winemakers grow grapes, mix their choice together and create. By definition, not every creation is perfect and it tries to express the individual’s vision – it is sensitive, intimate, reflects mood, a particular moment and is often full of intuition. And this is what I would like to find in my glass.
Happily, today, we are discovering and rediscovering winemakers who love to make wine, simply, with a lot of demands and a profound respect of nature. Whether they cultivate organically, biodynamically or following their intuitions, they nonetheless take note of the knowledge and know-how consistent with their commitment.
It is these winemakers, their wines and their ‘terroirs’ which will be discussed in this blog – in trying to transmit the passion which leads them and getting to know their approach and environment better. Speaking, but not too much, about alive wines that make you happy, create an easy, convivial atmosphere and thanks to these, we are finding the power of socializing around wine again.
