Are American Wine Experts Killing American Wine Culture?
I’ve got a theory. My theory is: all the stuff wine people do to make wine more accessible to non-wine drinkers paradoxically makes wine seem more complicated. I mean, if it weren’t complicated, you wouldn’t have to simplify it, right?
Maybe all the advice columns, the helpful taste descriptions, the food-and-wine pairing formulae and admonitions to not worry make people worry even more. Every time we show the confused masses how to, we’re reminding them that there’s also a how not to, that there is a more-or-less 50-50 chance that they’re going to screw it up and who needs that kind of pressure?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some variation on the theme that the United States needs to develop a wine culture. Implicit in that heartfelt wish is that the pattern of wine consumption we have now, a pattern that has put wine on the shelves of every retail outlet that can legally sell wine, doesn’t constitute “culture.” That is, the wines people like and actually drink don’t matter, because they are not the wines that experts would have them drink. We bemoan the massive consumption of white Zinfandel and critter wines, conveniently forgetting that the plonk that forms the basis of French wine culture — the model we’d most like Americans to emulate — is so awful that it’s more economically advantageous to use it as tractor fuel than it is to sell it on the world market.
Maybe American wine culture would be just fine if those of us who fancy ourselves expert would shut up and let people drink whatever they like. Stop trying to enlighten the bastards and let them discover for themselves. If someone wants to down a $6 Pinot Noir on ice with their McFish sandwich, who are we to say they’re wrong?
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:45 PM
It would appear you have had an epiphany after spending all that time with the writers or wine. Geek that I am, it has been my contention that if you find a wine you like, then drink it! I attended a tasting where the patriach (now deceased) of a very famous Napa winery touted his favorite summer drink was his cab over ice in a tall rocks glass. So, per another of your posts, this hedonist approach will go a long way with the American consumer, after all we are proponents of “if it feels good, do it!”
Another quick point, consumer friendly packages will help break down the doubts, too.
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:22 PM
What’s the fuss. People go to the supermarket every day and pull a $7.99 bottle off the shelf and put it in their cart. This is a “wine culture.” We’re there. Where we are never going to be is a nation of people who consume $20+ bottles of wine on a regular basis. When Napa growers bemoan our lack of wine culture, what they are actually griping about is that working class folks won’t spend $40-$100 on some Napa Valley dentist-cum-vintner’s ego trip. I’m okay with that and looking at wine consumption both in gallons and dollars compared to what it was in 1980, the wine industry should be too. If they want a bigger piece of that bigger pie they will need to compete on price and quality instead of marketing and image. Ya gotta love the American Way.
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:32 PM
I, personally, like the details that make wine, for the majority, a difficult thing to grasp. Appreciation goes a long way in the wine world, and there are certainly a lot of resources out there (books, blogs, old wine guys) where someone could take a few seconds to learn something new. However, the whole learnin’ thing isn’t for everyone.
Make good inexpensive wine with cute labels for people just needing a bottle, and leave varietals off of Rhone labels for those of us who look at it as more than a buzz.
Any more than that, we may as well just make Red, White, and Rosé, and limit critics to the words “good” and “not so good”. That would clear things up a bit.
February 24th, 2010 at 2:01 AM
Creating a wine culture is like developing a democracy. It has to be a bottom-up rather than top-down approach.
Now that we’ve established that creating a “wine culture” here will be impossible, let me just point out that I drank a ’96 Dom Perignon tonight with Kentucky Fried Chicken (extra crispy). An impeccable pairing and one that should appeal to those of low-, uni- or high-brow. I doubt it’s a combo that one would find in an “authoritative” tome on food pairing though.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Wally,
The national stats as compared to other industrialized nations proves that the US still isn’t a wine culture and it has a long way to go to get there, which is why, along with China, this market remains the Holy Grail for exporters.