Archive for the ‘Culture and Wine’ Category
It’s one of my Top Ten Sentences of 2021 so far: “A huge step in the evolution of debauchery was the invention of agriculture because farming made booze possible.” I’ve never thought too deeply about the “evolution of debauchery” in general, but rather just my own. The story of my own debauched evolution is far less interesting than this little article at Phys.org, from which this awesome sentence originates: “When Did Humans Start Experimenting with Alcohol and Drugs?” While it…
It was difficult to find any non-mocking coverage of the claim made last week by University of Connecticut professor Mathilde Cohen that “French eating habits reinforced the ‘dominance’ of white people over ethnic minorities.” These mocking reactions came in response to a talk she gave in France on the subject that, in turn, was based on a paper she wrote on the subject. Her paper, entitled “The Whiteness of French Food,” purports to “identify a form of French food Whiteness…
What if at the end of 2022 it turns out wine sales have dipped below the pre-pandemic 2019 level? What if wealth inequality is unchecked and reaches levels higher than we’ve ever seen? What if more fires impact American wine-growing regions by the end of 2022 and test our industry’s ability (and the consumers’) to confront smoke taint? What if the reaction to greater online sales results in fewer wine club memberships? We are still very much in a state…
Of late I’ve been re-perusing the books on my shelves that explore Western Civilization. The volumes are many and varied. They range from biographies of notable historians and explorations into 18th Century European commerce to straight histories of regions and peoples as well as momentous events in Western Civilization. It is perhaps due to my profession, but as I look over these works, it becomes clear that if Western Civilization has produced a thing that more efficiently and accurately serves…
A clear eyed understanding of the wine industry is the prerequisite for the industry’s health and for success working in the industry. Too often I bump up against folks in the industry that don’t appreciate some basic truths about the industry. This, in turn, leads folks who want to succeed in the wine industry down a path that inevitably runs up against roadblocks. The five facts that follow are among the most important clear-eyed views of the wine industry that…
