Some ways to appreciate wine even more
How to think about producers, cost in the 21st century
My first impulse was to offer an easy, enjoyable alternative to the classes and books that focus on tasting and breaking wine down to its component aromas and flavors.
What’s wrong with that method? Nothing, if you are a professional with the goal of identifying wines in blind tastings. But that’s not the aim of most ordinary consumers, who simply want to develop comfort with wine and to feel confident in their own taste.
A far better approach, I thought, was to drink rather than taste, preferably with a meal shared by family or friends. This is the natural environment of wine, where it will fulfill its function of refreshing, intriguing and delighting, rather than a tasting in a more clinical setting. Under such pleasant conditions, we can all learn to evaluate wine by asking the simple but important questions: “Do I like the wine?” “Why?” and “Why not?” The answers can help anybody become a more confident wine consumer.
This method has the further advantage of allowing a bottle of wine to unfold over the course of a meal. Good wine is not static. From the time you pour a glass until you drain the last drop, the wine is changing, as it’s exposed to air, as it warms in the glass and as you add food and social interaction to the equation.
Each month I suggest a particular type of wine and offer three good examples. Readers then drink the wines over the next few weeks and, if they are so inclined, share responses in the comments section of the article. At the end of the month, we revisit the wines, discuss and move on to the next subject. Several ideas have emerged that get to the heart of both how to think about wine in the 21st century, when so much of what we thought we knew has changed, and what consumers most want to know when buying wine. Here are the most important lessons we’ve learned; the perspective they offer is particularly resonant and useful, whether you consider yourself a novice or a connoisseur.
Don’t be afraid to explore
Over the last 30 years, the options for wine consumers have exploded. Good wines are now available at a higher level of quality from more places, made from more kinds of grapes and offered in more styles than ever before. The choices can be daunting, but the opportunities for pleasure are great.
Exploring wines new to the global market are often the place to find great values. Cultivating a relationship with a good wine shop is a great way to discover up-and-coming wines.
Two excellent examples were our explorations of a Greek white, assyrtiko from Santorini, and an Austrian red, blaufränkisch. Both are extraordinary grapes and wonderful wines.
Find the best value for the price
Few issues matter more to consumers than how much to spend on wine and how to judge the value. Nobody wants to spend a lot of money on wine, or on anything, really. But, as with any category of consumer goods, some bottles cost more than others. Every bottle has its fixed costs: for farming, production, transport and the markups added with each transaction between producer, distributor, retailer and consumer.
Seriousness of purpose has a role. Small producers with an eye toward quality, whose farming and production methods are labor-intensive, have higher costs than big producers with an eye toward quantity. Figure in the law of supply and demand, and understand that the supply of most good wines is finite, as they are products of specific vineyards with one annual harvest. Costs can rise in a hurry.
Our looks at malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina and Mercurey, in the Côte Chalonnaise region of Burgundy, were two telling examples of how consumers, when better informed, can more easily discern the relation of price and value.
Learn from mass-market wines
The issues of price and value become especially difficult to grasp when consumers see the profusion of popular and exceedingly cheap wines that are widely available.
Many of these bottles, which are highly popular and easy to find in almost every American supermarket, are essentially made in factories to meet characteristics set forth in focus groups and consumer studies. I call these processed wines. Our exploration of them drew perhaps the most explosive response, both from fans of the wines who felt their preferences had been validated and from readers outraged that we would even consider discussing such wines.
Another column approached this issue from the point of view of price, specifically wines under $10 a bottle. These are not necessarily processed wines. But we tried to answer the question of what was available from conscientious producers on the extreme low end of the price spectrum.
Both columns, I thought, demonstrated the sacrifices that come with mass-production and ultralow costs.
Pair wine with food
Few aspects of wine are as intimidating as the question of how to match it with food. Textbooks offer intricate formulas that are almost impossible to follow, while sommeliers, with their deep understanding of their wines and the food served at their restaurants, focus on the most arcane points of symmetry or contrast.
Here’s a more commonsense approach: Just do it. With experience comes insight and preferences.
Examine your biases
We all have firm beliefs about certain wines, like “I hate chardonnay,” or
“All rosés are bad.” Often these are not the considered opinions that come with long exposure, but the products of a single bad experience, sometimes from long ago.
That’s why a tenet is to periodically examine our biases and stereotypes.
By doing so, you learn quickly (or in my case, relearn) that fixed beliefs about wine are often based on out-of-date information. Styles are not so much dictated by the potential of a grape or a place as by the intentions of a producer.
Defy conventional wisdom
Closely related to biases and stereotypes is the overreliance on conventional wisdom. This is especially true in wine because education and experience can often require the considerable time and expense of traveling and of buying and trying wines. It’s easier to open a book.
The problem is, a lot of those books are based on conventional beliefs too. Personal experience and confidence in one’s judgment are the essential tools in wine, and these are not so easy to come by. That’s why we consistently preach the virtues of an open mind.
Our explorations of aligoté and Valpolicella Classico were cases in point. Aligoté has long been the despised “other white grape” to chardonnay in Burgundy. What a surprise to find that good producers are making excellent versions.