Is it Time to Start a Culture War?
Precious few wine drinkers understand the myriad of issues that get bandied about in the wine literati community – BioD and organic versus “normal” viticulture, natural wine versus everything else, terroir versus taste profile, volume production versus small production, French oak versus oak chips, artisan small production versus national, large production or any of the other dozen issues that act as micro-flash points for a small cadre of wine enthusiasts.
Nor do most people care.
Creating mindshare and understanding within such swirl is half the battle for the business of wine.
Simply, not enough people understand wine-related issues because scant few can be distilled down into a CNN headline news ticker.
However, what everybody understands is the difference between a special effects laden popcorn blockbuster like Iron Man vs. art house with Slumdog Millionaire.
People understand, generally, the difference between Us magazine and long-form journalism ala The New Yorker.
People understand the difference between art and entertainment.
People SHOULD, emphasis on “should,” get a causal difference between a wine that is meant to be enjoyed as a mindless quaff versus a wine with intent of purpose.
Art, in its most rudimentary definition, is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression.
For the sake of emphasis, People SHOULD get a causal difference between a wine that is meant to be enjoyed as a mindless quaff versus a wine with intent of purpose.
And, mostly this delta between art and entertainment is self-selecting. I’m more art house than blockbuster. More journalism than slice o’ pop culture.
I understand this about myself. But, do most people understand themselves related to wine? The answer is no.
But, to get to understanding, you have to start conceptually at a 100,000 feet before you can get to the granular details.
The wine business wants to start at ground-level and work up, not top down.
And, therein lies the rub. Most wine drinkers don’t know enough to be self-selecting. They look at the wall of wine, without differentiation, and take a pig in the poke based on dollars and cents.
Despite being aware of this, we battle it out with words and conversations about manipulation, oak by-products and other conversational topics that induce bouts of boredom, if not tears, for most wine drinkers, without a larger emphasis on context.
Yet, with an economic assault on the wine industry via “trading down” whereby volume producers and imports are bludgeoning the high-end wine industry, now might be a good time to create a culture war.
As Mondavi said in his autobiography, “Making good wine is a skill; making fine wine is an art. ...”
The supermarket is riddled with good wine. However, frequently, only off the beaten path, or on the top, more expensive shelf, depending on where you look, does art exist.
I say this not as an assailant on large producers. I say this as an impassioned observer who thinks the greatest barrier-to-entry for wine business growth is complexity, and I’m not talking about complexity in the nose of a wine with great “legs.”
Amy from My Daily Wine, in a nice post on art and wine asks, “What is your connection to art and wine?”
Good question. For me, perhaps sub-consciously, it’s my adherence to an artistic sensibility despite the fact that I’ve tried painting and pottery and simply am not artistic in a classical sense.
Amy observes:
Wine is art to me and the winemakers are artists. Some bottles are like a cheap velvet Elvis and some are like the Mona Lisa, and the great ones for me are like Frida Kahlo on a sad but defiant day.
If you believe wine is art, as I do, as Amy does, as Mondavi does, then why aren’t boutique wine producers aligned with other artisans, potters and sculptors, painters and poets, musicians and maestros?
The Americans for the Arts Organization perpetually fights this art battle, ensuring ongoing mindshare of the arts, all kinds of arts, for all age groups, in our communities.
I have two thoughts on this – any mid-sized or large city in the country, if stripped of its business and sports teams could keep a snapping vitality because of one factor – the arts community.
No greater example of this exists than in New Orleans.
Secondarily, no greater opportunity exists for small production wineries and the wine business than to get their voice included in the arts conversation. Support and inclusion in Americans for the Arts is certainly one way to start.
With continued economic pressure on high-end producers, those who don’t have economies of scale to leverage in the marketplace, a saving grace might be to help further define the understanding for all wine drinkers, not a sub-set, that wine is art.
Help wine drinkers of all stripes become self-selecting for reasons other than price.
You’re still going to have blockbuster movies that drive the market, but the ratio of wins to losses just might be increased for smaller producers if they start a culture war and include themselves in the art conversation.
Additional reading:
Art Commerce, Commerce Art by Jeff Bundschu
What I blogged about a year ago: