Or "Wine Snobbery - The Bane of The Wine World".
I've been selling wine, in one way or another, for coming on 5 years now; its been an interesting time to say the least, not just in learning about the myriad of wines out there, but more intriguingly to the way that we as a people approach wine, and the glories that it entails.
First and foremost, wine is an alcoholic drink: a source of pleasure, hopefully, a great accompaniment to social times and relaxation; but given there are so many different styles its amazing what limited selections people submit themselves to.
I started my career in wine, as many have, serving it to others, and whilst most were quite happy to go for a nice Chilean Merlot or Australian Shiraz on the reds, the requests for white wines always astounded me. From "Yeah I wanna nice medium-dry Pingo-Gringo" to "Oh no I don't drink Chenin its too sweet" I was always intrigued as to how these people had formed such steadfast opinions based upon so little. (Wine Informative Aside: nearly all white wine in this country sold and consumed is dry; medium-dry, medium-sweet do not refer to the flavour profile but to the level of residual sugar, the actual grams per litre. Wines can taste fruity whilst still being dry.)
This kind of Flavour-Arrogance is all well and fine, you like what you know, but it's made despicable when you have someone who thinks their opinion is well informed when they're plainly pig-ignorant. I'll cite two examples: the first is the "I can't stand Chardollay", mispronouncing aside, this statement is then usually followed by "but have you got any chablis?". Casually damning an entire varietal just because it's deemed unfashionable (a point I'll address in a later missive).
The second example concerns Rosé. I'll let you in on a little secret, the style of a Rosé has nothing whatsoever to do with the colour; (EJG have done no one any favours with their innocuous blushes) nor whether it'll give you a raging hangover or not. And yet, many people are convinced that they know what colour to go for to find a wine they enjoy.
The point I'm labouring to make is about wine information and misinformation. As with any subjective pleasure there are as many intellectual-studies as there are old-wives' tales; the key thing to realise is that being ignorant of something is fine, you can always learn more. What is far far worse is to arrogantly claim knowledge, make some sweeping generalisation and have it being at best, make you look like an idiot, or at worse being detrimental to your enjoyment and others. of such a great human creation.
"In vino veritas et praevalebit. Agreeing with the author, there is truth in wine and it will prevail...in a bit."
Stevie Smith
Suggested wine-style to try this week: Italian Pinot Grigio - yes there are some very good ones out there, suprisingly.
(Nice to see Red wine coming out on top of the poll, no one voted for Rosé, even given the weather we've been having.)
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Wednesday 17 June 2009
A bottle a day keeps the doctor away.
In an ideal world it would do. As then I could preface my name with Doctor, as I'd be a purveyor of goods that improved the health of anyone who walked through the door.
I suppose I should give some explanation of what and why of the title:
Plonk, as everyone knows, is cheap/inferior wine that you don't drink out of pleasure but rather to either get drunk on something that's less bloating than beer or to look sophisticated (and most likely fail in doing so.) For my sins, the first bottle of plonk I bought wasn't one, but three, with the then amazing Tesco's 3-for-£10 deal (ahh the heady days of underage economy drinking); and it clearly had one of the two above desired effects, as I have no recollection at all as to what on earth it was. Thankfully it was quite the eye-opener and although, naturally, I'd had wine at home, I never bought wine till I went to university, where I remembered the pitfalls and horrors of cheap wine.
From that to Petrus is quite a step (as mentioned before, one I actually have yet to take). Château Pétrus is considered one of the top wines in the entire world; Farr Vintners puts the latest drinkable vintage, '98, at £1708 per bottle; quite the payout for a simple pleasure. However, as many of the wine-world's top critics name-drop it in their works, like some famous celebrity friend, and the alliteration with Plonk, I thought it suitably apt.
Returning to Plonk, there are a few things I feel I should mention given that a blog about wine at the very least should be informative. Firstly, assuming that you are wanting to drink more than just gut-rot there are some very good reasons why buying a £5 bottle of wine will be outstandingly better, both in taste and quality, than buying a £3 bottle.
Sad to say, like many things in life, the reason for this is tax: the Duty currently on a bottle of wine is around the 160p mark. In a £3 bottle of wine over half of the cost is pure government greed (a point I'll address in a later missive). Now factor in transport/labour/administration/retail-mark ups and you've got very little left in the bottle, in monetary terms, that actually involves the wine. Say that Duty is 160p, transport from wherever 40p, administration and labour costs another 30p, leaving you a mere 70p to include retail profit, wine-making cost and wine-maker's profit. All in all I imagine that the actual cost of the wine in terms of production might be around the 5p mark.
Now consider if you move up a price-point from £3 to £5, suddenly you've got a massive 270p's worth of potential wine-value. Certainly a better bottle, in value, taste and quality.
Two main points I'm trying to highlight from this: firstly, that in wine it's always worth spending the extra couple of pounds; and secondly that you get what you pay for.
"Wine maketh merry; but money answereth all things."
Ecclesiastes ch. 10, v.19
Suggested wine-style to try this week: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc - preferably from Malborough.
I suppose I should give some explanation of what and why of the title:
Plonk, as everyone knows, is cheap/inferior wine that you don't drink out of pleasure but rather to either get drunk on something that's less bloating than beer or to look sophisticated (and most likely fail in doing so.) For my sins, the first bottle of plonk I bought wasn't one, but three, with the then amazing Tesco's 3-for-£10 deal (ahh the heady days of underage economy drinking); and it clearly had one of the two above desired effects, as I have no recollection at all as to what on earth it was. Thankfully it was quite the eye-opener and although, naturally, I'd had wine at home, I never bought wine till I went to university, where I remembered the pitfalls and horrors of cheap wine.
From that to Petrus is quite a step (as mentioned before, one I actually have yet to take). Château Pétrus is considered one of the top wines in the entire world; Farr Vintners puts the latest drinkable vintage, '98, at £1708 per bottle; quite the payout for a simple pleasure. However, as many of the wine-world's top critics name-drop it in their works, like some famous celebrity friend, and the alliteration with Plonk, I thought it suitably apt.
Returning to Plonk, there are a few things I feel I should mention given that a blog about wine at the very least should be informative. Firstly, assuming that you are wanting to drink more than just gut-rot there are some very good reasons why buying a £5 bottle of wine will be outstandingly better, both in taste and quality, than buying a £3 bottle.
Sad to say, like many things in life, the reason for this is tax: the Duty currently on a bottle of wine is around the 160p mark. In a £3 bottle of wine over half of the cost is pure government greed (a point I'll address in a later missive). Now factor in transport/labour/administration/retail-mark ups and you've got very little left in the bottle, in monetary terms, that actually involves the wine. Say that Duty is 160p, transport from wherever 40p, administration and labour costs another 30p, leaving you a mere 70p to include retail profit, wine-making cost and wine-maker's profit. All in all I imagine that the actual cost of the wine in terms of production might be around the 5p mark.
Now consider if you move up a price-point from £3 to £5, suddenly you've got a massive 270p's worth of potential wine-value. Certainly a better bottle, in value, taste and quality.
Two main points I'm trying to highlight from this: firstly, that in wine it's always worth spending the extra couple of pounds; and secondly that you get what you pay for.
"Wine maketh merry; but money answereth all things."
Ecclesiastes ch. 10, v.19
Suggested wine-style to try this week: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc - preferably from Malborough.
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Like the first sip of an opened bottle:
I take the plunge.
Let me first preface my blog with two thoughts:
Firstly, that blogging is and can be a license for sloppy journalism and I'll be having none of it! Secondly, that I have yet to try Petrus. I certainly intend to one day, but alas working with wine doesn't really reward one fiscally enough to indulge in such wonders.
Let me first preface my blog with two thoughts:
Firstly, that blogging is and can be a license for sloppy journalism and I'll be having none of it! Secondly, that I have yet to try Petrus. I certainly intend to one day, but alas working with wine doesn't really reward one fiscally enough to indulge in such wonders.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
