It's pretty easy to live life and not see it changing around you.
It happens gradually in most cases.
You can't prevent change from happening but you can understand it.
In the world of wine change has happened relatively quickly, especially in the last 100 years and certainly in the last four decades or so.
The big change has been the explosion of the global market for wine and the popularity of wine outside of Europe.
The French are grappling with this development and have expressed more fear about it than anyone else.
Although they are still masters, ranking first in production and a very close second (to Luxembourg) in per capita consumption, the French have noted a disturbing loss of market share to new countries like Australia and Chile while local wine consumption declines.
For the first time in history the British are drinking more wine from somewhere else (Australia).
In fact consumption of wine is falling across Europe just because they have more alternatives than ever before; coke, milk, even bottled waters.
The French, and the other traditional European wine producing nations wonder if their marketing is out of step and if their wine styles are not as appealing as they once were.
Most European nations have less vineyard acreage today then they did forty years ago even though world wine consumption has risen dramatically.
America is on a track to be the top wine consuming nation by the year 2010.
The very positive result of this has been the overall improvement in world wine quality.
While the Europeans have been making wine for thousands of years it has, for most of that time been a low technology, traditional business that didn't have to impress anyone except the locals.
As wine making (and drinking) has finally begun in other countries there has been a simultaneous movement to mimic the most prestigious European styles and to create a distinctly modern set of styles.
Thanks to transportation all of this wine is available all over the world.
The debate over the real differences between New World Wine and Old World Wine aside, the result is that all wine has now to compete, and it better taste good by some standard.
It truly is more difficult to buy a bad bottle of wine today than ever before and the variety of types and styles to choose from has only increased.
All good! The unfortunate down side is that as wine becomes a global commodity it engages calculations and manipulations that have nothing to do with quality.
If a buck can be made (and actually billions of bucks are made every year) it's too easy for that to become the goal.
And, where a lot of money is concentrated there is power.
So, the wines that sell have greater influence and greater influence sells wine.
It's important to realize however that "money", "power"and "influence" doesn't necessarily correspond to quality.
It is especially pernicious in maters of personal taste to allow money and influence to guide you because taste is so subjective and mysterious.
Your taste is precisely that, YOUR SENSE OF TASTE.
I'm writing this because I want you to be the decider, not some mook in New York or San Francisco who has 150,000 cases of wine to sell.
So, you notice that some wines appear on every wine list in town.
Every wine shop and liquor store you walk into has big stacks of the same wines at the ends of the isles.
And, on the shelf you see some wines that come in all the grape flavors, lined up side by side with matching labels and big and regular sized bottles all from the same winery.
Where do these wines come from? Why are they ubiquitous? They're mass produced.
If you wanted to visit the Yellow Tail winery (for instance) you would think you were visiting an oil refinery.
These wines are made in such staggering large quantity that the wine must ferment and age (if they do that) in huge above ground tanks.
I don't think there are many truer truismsthan the one that says that individuality does not exist in mass produced products.
There is a place for wines like these but, if you are actually cooking a meal and tasting the wine then why not have something that isn't so generic? Kendell Jackson Chardonnay and Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio are two good examples of wines that fell into the clutches of a marketing whirlwind.
Both are decent wines.
But both, after being noted as decent wines were bought out by marketing companies that expanded their distribution and their production and raised their prices significantly.
Fundamentally their quality has been protected but with higher volume production their individuality is muted to say the least.
And, why spend 20% more than you did a couple of years ago just because there are more people in the marketing chain who have to be fed? The wine doesn't taste any better than it did before.
Sommeliers and restaurant people fall into the same trap that's set for you; they think they have to offer these wines for sale because they're what you want to buy, because they want the purchase to be easy and they don't want to have to try very hard.
Yellow Tail is the #1 import wine in America and Santa Margarita is the #1 Pinot Grigio not because they're the best but because they're more widely publicized, there are glossy ads telling you how good they are and the wine industry has simultaneously made you worry that your choice might be embarrassing if it's not stylish and "with it".
But really, to be a #1 import it can't be very individual? If you look up Woodbridge on the web and the first thing you find is an article about new technology that helps Woodbridge turn out more wine faster, what does that tell you? Don't drink what Big Brother wants you to drink.
Choose more wines that are new to you.
Don't get into a rut of any kind.
There is more variety in the world of wine than in anything else on the market.
Why miss out on that? If you like one of these wines I've mentioned by name I don't intend to make you feel funny about buying it.
But critics all over are telling you what to buy so, likewise don't feel bad about ignoring their advice.
A wine that gets a 90+ rating immediately sells for more because a lot of buyers out there are waiting for the next 90 pointer so they can tell their friends what they're drinking, "Your drinking 90 points".
Do you want to drink points or wine? There are plenty of examples of wines that score less than 90 points tasting as good or better and generally costing less.
Ask the shop clerk, ask the sommelier or server, ask me (at warrenwineworld.
com), it's more fun to explore and adventure with wine.
Try a wine from southwestern France, a wine from Spain, a wine from southern Italy.
Try a wine from Canada.
Make it a project to spend less on wine and see what little gems you can find.
Diversity is good.
Global competition is good.
Marketing manipulation is bad.
Scores are bad.
Allowing the tastes of others to dictate your taste is bad.
If the big labels lose a blip of market share to the hundreds of smaller, better wines that don't have glossy ads that's a messaqe the guys in New York and San Francisco will hear.
It happens gradually in most cases.
You can't prevent change from happening but you can understand it.
In the world of wine change has happened relatively quickly, especially in the last 100 years and certainly in the last four decades or so.
The big change has been the explosion of the global market for wine and the popularity of wine outside of Europe.
The French are grappling with this development and have expressed more fear about it than anyone else.
Although they are still masters, ranking first in production and a very close second (to Luxembourg) in per capita consumption, the French have noted a disturbing loss of market share to new countries like Australia and Chile while local wine consumption declines.
For the first time in history the British are drinking more wine from somewhere else (Australia).
In fact consumption of wine is falling across Europe just because they have more alternatives than ever before; coke, milk, even bottled waters.
The French, and the other traditional European wine producing nations wonder if their marketing is out of step and if their wine styles are not as appealing as they once were.
Most European nations have less vineyard acreage today then they did forty years ago even though world wine consumption has risen dramatically.
America is on a track to be the top wine consuming nation by the year 2010.
The very positive result of this has been the overall improvement in world wine quality.
While the Europeans have been making wine for thousands of years it has, for most of that time been a low technology, traditional business that didn't have to impress anyone except the locals.
As wine making (and drinking) has finally begun in other countries there has been a simultaneous movement to mimic the most prestigious European styles and to create a distinctly modern set of styles.
Thanks to transportation all of this wine is available all over the world.
The debate over the real differences between New World Wine and Old World Wine aside, the result is that all wine has now to compete, and it better taste good by some standard.
It truly is more difficult to buy a bad bottle of wine today than ever before and the variety of types and styles to choose from has only increased.
All good! The unfortunate down side is that as wine becomes a global commodity it engages calculations and manipulations that have nothing to do with quality.
If a buck can be made (and actually billions of bucks are made every year) it's too easy for that to become the goal.
And, where a lot of money is concentrated there is power.
So, the wines that sell have greater influence and greater influence sells wine.
It's important to realize however that "money", "power"and "influence" doesn't necessarily correspond to quality.
It is especially pernicious in maters of personal taste to allow money and influence to guide you because taste is so subjective and mysterious.
Your taste is precisely that, YOUR SENSE OF TASTE.
I'm writing this because I want you to be the decider, not some mook in New York or San Francisco who has 150,000 cases of wine to sell.
So, you notice that some wines appear on every wine list in town.
Every wine shop and liquor store you walk into has big stacks of the same wines at the ends of the isles.
And, on the shelf you see some wines that come in all the grape flavors, lined up side by side with matching labels and big and regular sized bottles all from the same winery.
Where do these wines come from? Why are they ubiquitous? They're mass produced.
If you wanted to visit the Yellow Tail winery (for instance) you would think you were visiting an oil refinery.
These wines are made in such staggering large quantity that the wine must ferment and age (if they do that) in huge above ground tanks.
I don't think there are many truer truismsthan the one that says that individuality does not exist in mass produced products.
There is a place for wines like these but, if you are actually cooking a meal and tasting the wine then why not have something that isn't so generic? Kendell Jackson Chardonnay and Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio are two good examples of wines that fell into the clutches of a marketing whirlwind.
Both are decent wines.
But both, after being noted as decent wines were bought out by marketing companies that expanded their distribution and their production and raised their prices significantly.
Fundamentally their quality has been protected but with higher volume production their individuality is muted to say the least.
And, why spend 20% more than you did a couple of years ago just because there are more people in the marketing chain who have to be fed? The wine doesn't taste any better than it did before.
Sommeliers and restaurant people fall into the same trap that's set for you; they think they have to offer these wines for sale because they're what you want to buy, because they want the purchase to be easy and they don't want to have to try very hard.
Yellow Tail is the #1 import wine in America and Santa Margarita is the #1 Pinot Grigio not because they're the best but because they're more widely publicized, there are glossy ads telling you how good they are and the wine industry has simultaneously made you worry that your choice might be embarrassing if it's not stylish and "with it".
But really, to be a #1 import it can't be very individual? If you look up Woodbridge on the web and the first thing you find is an article about new technology that helps Woodbridge turn out more wine faster, what does that tell you? Don't drink what Big Brother wants you to drink.
Choose more wines that are new to you.
Don't get into a rut of any kind.
There is more variety in the world of wine than in anything else on the market.
Why miss out on that? If you like one of these wines I've mentioned by name I don't intend to make you feel funny about buying it.
But critics all over are telling you what to buy so, likewise don't feel bad about ignoring their advice.
A wine that gets a 90+ rating immediately sells for more because a lot of buyers out there are waiting for the next 90 pointer so they can tell their friends what they're drinking, "Your drinking 90 points".
Do you want to drink points or wine? There are plenty of examples of wines that score less than 90 points tasting as good or better and generally costing less.
Ask the shop clerk, ask the sommelier or server, ask me (at warrenwineworld.
com), it's more fun to explore and adventure with wine.
Try a wine from southwestern France, a wine from Spain, a wine from southern Italy.
Try a wine from Canada.
Make it a project to spend less on wine and see what little gems you can find.
Diversity is good.
Global competition is good.
Marketing manipulation is bad.
Scores are bad.
Allowing the tastes of others to dictate your taste is bad.
If the big labels lose a blip of market share to the hundreds of smaller, better wines that don't have glossy ads that's a messaqe the guys in New York and San Francisco will hear.
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