Newsletter Archives > Wine Industry / Wine Marketing

ANNOYANCES,

or It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way

By Harry Peterson-Nedry

If this newsletter doesn’t stimulate you or make you chuckle or make you a tad angry, you may be dead. At least it should annoy you. If not yet annoyed, pick from the following tidbits and eek out a small rant.

TALK DRY, DRINK SWEET — Ever notice how most casual wine drinkers insist on only “dry” wines, but prefer noticeably “sweet” wines in reality?

OH, I ONLY DRINK RED — An expectation foisted on the public by our wine industry, critics, and trade that white wines are not a destination, just a milepost along the way to understanding wines, with the ultimate experience being expensive, big red wines. This ignores the fact that the search is really for interest, complexity, nuance, finesse, and food compatibility. Wineries have been complicit by not focusing equally on white wines and by not demanding their white wines be complex. Great Riesling, Chardonnay, and the like have been marginalized in the process. Remember that at the turn of the last century great wine lists sold white wines like German Riesling and White Burgundies for more than the first-growth Bordeaux.

BIGGER IS BETTER — Similar to above, except taken to another level of abstraction, or is it extraction, by critics like Robert Parker, with terroir and uniqueness suffering in a flood of big, fruity, oaky New World (and recently Old World) red wines.

ANOTHER CHICKEN JERK — Could I have the jerk chicken or blackened snapper so I can’t taste the food? Then the big butt red wine might work. Our food traditions are “stone age or chuck wagon” in David Bergen’s words, about how to cover up flaws or how to quickly deal with what you’ve foraged—grilling, saucing and spicing, or boiling the bejuices out of it. Puritan constraints still suck the joy out of food and wine (and music and art). When will local sourcing and a cultural approach to food and wine be the norm? Maybe as climates slow us down to a Mediterranean pace.

WHEN WATCHING’S NOT ENOUGH — When the observation itself influences what’s being observed, things begin to smack of Quantum Theory realities. When Fox News makes the news instead of reporting it, when NBA referees begin betting on the outcomes of games they officiate, or when critics’ influences encourage winemakers to make wines for submittal rather than just submitting what they’ve made, we’ve gone too far. We’re asking to be had. Objectivity has its place and, clench your jaw and hold on, maybe we have to be the sheep that refuse to step off the cliff just because the others around us have. Independence begins at home (or, perhaps stubbornly, in Missouri).

SINGLE-VINEYARD WINES ARE SUPERIOR TO BLENDS — Yeah, just like other generalizations, it all depends. On whether the site is really special in someone’s besides the vineyard owner’s mind, shows consistent characteristics year after year, and is not subjugated by the winemaker’s style. Blends can be superior when complementary cuvées make, through synergy, a wine no vineyard component alone could have made. They also are more likely to be consistent in final character with a talented winemaker. Key: ask the winemaker’s opinion and don’t generalize.

WHEN WINEMAKERS DRINK ONLY THEIR OWN WINE — Some winemakers may be just as stuck in a rut as you. I wouldn’t trust their opinion. Our job is to be open, inquisitive, technically curious, and objective. A cellar palate fights all of that and is all you’ll have if you appreciate your own work too much. We learn from others, what they do, and the differences they create. We can be proud of our own creations, but should stop short of re-creating that old brand, Narcissist.