Just as a note.
The world of wine sees global consumption levels drop quite a bit from previous peaks – following patterns for other alcoholic beverages though not as much.
Various reasons have been investigated, and data on possible rebound( avenue)s published. Agressive disinformation by (quasi-religious) teetotaller revivalists on health (no, wine is medically proven to be health-enhancing when taken in moderation, even more when enjoyed around/during dinner time) is one of the most-cited reasons. Cost can’t be an issue since the cheapest wines are still … insultingly low rock-bottom prices even after all the inflation years/decades. Many markets seeing ‘youth’ staying with their parents that much longer, not living the independent wild life as many years as we used to, maybe, too.
To which I would like to note another possible reason: The explosion of locality. Which may be pitched as The solution against brand dilution, e.g., in France, but globally …
Once, there were only a handful of countries to know (and a great many of the few actually involved, knew what a Saint Bris would stand for, no need to know individual wine makers from there as real connoisseurs would, or know all vintages by heart as the wannabees would have crammed).
Then, there was the arrival of the New World. And then, one knew all the Aussies in one go. One sea of sameness. Initially, there was this argument for decline of wine appreciation by the way of ‘sameness through loss of variety of varietals’.
But in my view, this has been turned on its head with the resurrection of forgotten grapes. The average-‘rare’ are far from it, nowadays. The …forsaken have been taken, for an upswing. Well, not all have been revived sufficiently, yet… So we ‘fixed’ that but possibly overdid it in the middle-class wine snob world of publicity due to which we’re now overshooting required knowledge, dismissing experience for the time being.
Now, even moderate knowledge levels require to know a Torrontés from a Poulsard, to know a McMinnville from a Yamhill-Carlton, to be able to pronounce Larmandier-Bernier effortlessly – just picking a simple one for demo; skipping the desire to flaunt (my) Montgueux interest.
OK, I made that one up. I hope but don’t know if thusmentioned grapes really are back en vogue sufficiently to spread their word/worth. But one can start digging in.
But which means that anyone who enters the world of wine beyond cheap plonk, now has such a vast world to learn and explore even for a holiday trip instead of threading in Here Be Dragons – ah, China, yet another huuuuge terrain to cover even if barely.
Discouragingly.
And with the nowadays much more many in-between connoisseurs (and wannabees; let’s not exclude myself) displaying ever more detailed, learned hardly to that extent experienced, knowledge of all sort of minutiae of whatever they can rattle off, we forget the more philosophical enjoyment wine can bring.
Discouragingly.
Can we do something about this? I’m unsure.
But as a start, pushing each and every winemaker to tout their individuality over locality-/regional recognisability may not be wise. Education-wise, we may need to consider whether purely tasting and appreciating may need a revival. Aroma interpretation (labeling) of any single compound already varies wildly; culturally (what in his name is a boysenberry and in what (becoming) irrelevant little corner of the world does it grow? [But why don’t people know a thing about the wonderful merits of Mirabelle ..!?] What is kumquat? Please decipher this. Oh and yes wine descriptions vary per country; the Duts (at least, the ones pretending to be a self-declared in-group elite, tossing (sic) around their in-crowd hobby horses of the decade like ‘Oh my! Grosse Gewächs’ everywhere) seem to take a structural-analytical angle with much less regard for finesses of aroma, the French – and who are we all the non-French for correcting them ..‽ – take a different tack, towards a more impressionistic direction which focuses on the experience much more including just a couple of deep dives into aroma specifics, and others go another way again.
Also, stay away from mock mastery, false superiority. As in: If anyone tastes green paprika (‘bell pepper’ for simpletons), do not say that it can’t be because Cab Franc isn’t there. Better recognise their refinement i.e., such low sensory threshold for any of the mass of different pyrazines that exist and which apparently elude you. Is it not wise to tone this down a bit, to start off with learning about one’s individual palate and realise all one’s specific (partial) anosmia’s plus learn about the general appreciation of the cultural ‘place’ of wine? So, another combi of the basic, the core and the other-dimension/subfield directed learning as a program may help. Approachable, open and non-exclusivity-attempting oozing, and friendly.
So you’ll not end up as the eager beaver upstart when meeting the French. They will tell you that despite being from the Hexagone, they actually don’t know that much of wine – until they taste something and show to know literally everything. Small wonder in a culture where learning to drink wine so very young rings in the background. I don’t believe they still have wine for grammar scholl drinks instead of e.g., milk in the Pays-Bas; nevertheless Wine is a default cultural thing so you’re grossly outflanked there. For an amateur you’ll sound like an expert, but to an expert you’ll forever be an amateur. Never mind that ‘amateur’ is just ‘lover of’ in French which is most appropriate hopefully, and enjoy the summarily peak Cultural Phenomenon at your own pace and level.
Wine as a phenomenon deserves it.
Oh and as a futher reminder, this is from a post by https://www.instagram.com/artoftasting/ :
“👩👧👦Wine aromas are experienced entirely different from one person to the next. Your cultural background determines which aromas you have encountered in your life, and these will be the aroma you are more likely to find in a glass of wine.
👃Five people from different countries describe the same wine sample: a neutral base white wine with added geraniol.
🔥In wine, geraniol is produced in high amounts in Gewürztraminer and Muscat. It is produced in medium amounts by Riesling, Viognier, Assyrtiko, Albariño, as well as several other (semi-)aromatic grapes.
🌹Geraniol is also present in various flowers, fruits and other products around the world. The associations people have in this video are: Umeboshi (Japan), Sushi vinegar (China), Lokum (Turkey) and Italicus (Italy).
🌍What geraniol smells of, entirely depends on which geraniol-containing product you have encountered most recently, or most frequently. Did you consume sushi vinegar for most of your life? Muscat wine is likely to remind you of sushi vinegar.”
