My brother (10 years older) gave me The Once and Future King when I was precisely the right age to read it. I loved that book. It helped formulate my ideas of politics, potential and idealism that persist today. I liked the geese. No borders, no restrictions. Of course, T.H. White didn't write about how nasty their poop is. (Had a bunch of geese near my office for 20 years.)
The ant done/not done attitude can be applied to publishing as well. The idea of "service journalism" and SEO lead to dumbing down the subject, and wine becomes "just fermented grape juice," "this one's cheap and good," "you're just as good as the 'experts' at wine tasting" articles that are largely meaningless. The history, culture, resonance and the perfection of imperfection -- the things that make wine special -- all get lost.
This is very thoughtful post, with lots to consider. Much like The Once and Future King.
I start out in a binary mode when it comes to wine...Flawed/Not Flawed (if flawed toss it), move on...Like/Dislike...once I've determined that, then I get into the Why? But my process takes about 1-5 seconds before I get to the "Why" and I almost always get to the Why unless I'm at a wedding or catered business event where I drink the wine presented at the table.
One tribe that loves embracing the binary is Natty vs Everything Else, which isn't good for them long term, because the natty people won't be able to scale-up. My wines are closer to the Natty philosophy of low intervention than a 100,000 case brand that's for sure and nowhere near a 1 million case brand.
This wine language of description and appreciation is learning a second language, like German or Italian. There's the book learning, call it WSET or Wine Folly, then there's the practical, the actually drinking of the wine and translating those sensory inputs into words.
The language is universe, but the sensory experience is different. This is where the "drink what you like" problem comes into play. I've watched people drink horribly smoke tainted wine and say it's fine. Some people can't detect cork taint, because it's beyond their sensory threshold, but not mine. I'm less sensitive to VA, generally, so my sensory tolerance is different than others who don't care for many Italian wines.
I'm with you Jim, engaging on a descriptive language level is to the wine industry's benefit. I'm afraid that there are so many ecosystems out there advocating for their little world of wine that we either talk over each other, or never listen to one another. It's your last paragraph before your wine notes about not forcing cohorts, that's the challenge.
My brother (10 years older) gave me The Once and Future King when I was precisely the right age to read it. I loved that book. It helped formulate my ideas of politics, potential and idealism that persist today. I liked the geese. No borders, no restrictions. Of course, T.H. White didn't write about how nasty their poop is. (Had a bunch of geese near my office for 20 years.)
The ant done/not done attitude can be applied to publishing as well. The idea of "service journalism" and SEO lead to dumbing down the subject, and wine becomes "just fermented grape juice," "this one's cheap and good," "you're just as good as the 'experts' at wine tasting" articles that are largely meaningless. The history, culture, resonance and the perfection of imperfection -- the things that make wine special -- all get lost.
This is very thoughtful post, with lots to consider. Much like The Once and Future King.
Thank you for understanding this post completely...!
I start out in a binary mode when it comes to wine...Flawed/Not Flawed (if flawed toss it), move on...Like/Dislike...once I've determined that, then I get into the Why? But my process takes about 1-5 seconds before I get to the "Why" and I almost always get to the Why unless I'm at a wedding or catered business event where I drink the wine presented at the table.
One tribe that loves embracing the binary is Natty vs Everything Else, which isn't good for them long term, because the natty people won't be able to scale-up. My wines are closer to the Natty philosophy of low intervention than a 100,000 case brand that's for sure and nowhere near a 1 million case brand.
This wine language of description and appreciation is learning a second language, like German or Italian. There's the book learning, call it WSET or Wine Folly, then there's the practical, the actually drinking of the wine and translating those sensory inputs into words.
The language is universe, but the sensory experience is different. This is where the "drink what you like" problem comes into play. I've watched people drink horribly smoke tainted wine and say it's fine. Some people can't detect cork taint, because it's beyond their sensory threshold, but not mine. I'm less sensitive to VA, generally, so my sensory tolerance is different than others who don't care for many Italian wines.
I'm with you Jim, engaging on a descriptive language level is to the wine industry's benefit. I'm afraid that there are so many ecosystems out there advocating for their little world of wine that we either talk over each other, or never listen to one another. It's your last paragraph before your wine notes about not forcing cohorts, that's the challenge.
Excellent take DMS. I appreciate your words a lot. Second language indeed!