So Over It

Over. The great adjective/adverb of the times we live in. Where more is moreand less is, well, very much less. We suffer from overeating, overacting,overextending, oversensitivity, overreacting..... So why should wine, soobviously part of culture, not be any different? Overblown, over-extracted,overripe (not to mention overpriced).

Now these seem to be symptoms of the flourishing new world, but we do have one for the old world and in particular France – overimportant.

I was brought up to believe that the mystery of sensatory pleasure lay inthe subtleties. Where the best albums we listened to were the ones thatseemed quite difficult at first, but grew on us with every listening. Where even though Robert Johnson (or for the more modern – Jeff Buckley) didn’t quite make sense the first time, there was ‘something’ that drew us back and made us fall in love with that mystery. This was a longer lasting pleasure, one that made the price of the album seem way out of proportion with the experience. Where the experience – dare I say it - overexceeded it’s monetary price.

There’s always a lot of parallels between various forms of art and wine, butI like the above the best. Like a great wine, it’s concise, direct, open to different interpretations and something that everyone can relate to. (look at that!!! A metaphor on a metaphor!!).

Recently, I read Ben Canaider talk about how some of our wines deserve to be treated like cordial and to be diluted with water. One would think that’s just treating the symptom rather than the problem. Extraction does have it’splace in modern winemaking and has served to improve many wines both in the new and old world, but surely (like it’s friend Maloactic Fermentation) it’s not a necessity for every grape or vintage. The skill set of a truly great winemaker has to include the ability to use wisdom, knowledge and experience to predict what each particular growing season will manufacture and decide when and when not to give nature a ‘helping hand’. I don’t want my wine to taste the same vintage to vintage and I don’t want to meet a wine too eager to make friends.

It would be fair to believe that some of this Olympian (higher, faster,stronger and longer) winemaking has been driven by the Marketing Divisions and their ‘Market Trend Research Tools’ (whatever that may be), but logic would surely dictate this new ‘over’ mentality would be rather decreasingsales. For example, this summer I’ve found myself enjoying the more restrained German Rieslings and Moscato d’Astis when drinking with friends and the reason is simple – low alcohol. These overblown beasts out there a tthe moment, have you (to borrow from particular rum commercial) singing Bon Jovi songs in no time. One needs the constitution of some old English stage actor to be able to handle more than a couple of glasses and I’m afraid Oliver Reed is yet to invite me over for a barbequed steak. Dinking wine is not entirely about getting drunk, there is the odd bit of sensatory pleasure to it and it’s this that will drive the (multiple) sales of these port like wines down. For the more you can drink, the more the consumer will buy.

Popular belief amongst UK based wine writers will have it that much of the blame lies with their counterparts across the Atlantic and in particular a certain Mr. Parker. But words are just that. The reason people follow these writers is because they agree with them. They feel that therecommendations are all good ones and have a belief that they share palate preferences with these writers. This should not be sneered down upon, for‘wine correctness’ does not exist anywhere, let alone reside in the UK. Wine has the ability to be at the same time the drink of the aristocrat and the peasant and everyone in between. I am not suggesting that we should wipe out big wines all together, for some people enjoy them. All I’m saying is, in the words of the great Australian orator Shannon Noll, “what about me!?!”.

What about the people like me who don’t confuse a weak and insipid wine,with a subtle one. Who look for wines that taste like what they are made of – fruit. Who look for winemakers who aren’t trying to impress you with their ability to challenge gravity and find the thickest substance that is still able topour and who use wood and science like a great chef uses salt and pepper. People who look at the alcohol content and ask does it really need tobe that high. And people who don’t use the price tag as a guide of quality.

My only hope is that there is a lot of you out there who are the same andtogether we inflict a bit of reverse Darwinism and the (over)strong winesdon’t survive. I for one am so over them.