The Tempranillo Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society, an organization that promotes the production of Iberian grape varieties in the U.S., held their first tasting recently in Napa.
America (Country Appellation)
TAPAS can enlarge your brain...
and extend your life
by
Roger Dial
August 11, 2008
The wine industry has a lot to worry about these days. Here’s just a short list:
<<>> There is the deeply embedded “prohibitionism,” forever raising its hardhead in many guises, which has put a glass ceiling on the expansion of the American wine market for generations.
<<>> There is global warming (or climate change, take your pick) that threatens terroir assumptions everywhere, not to mention the viticultural foundations of even the Napa Valley.
<<>> Then there’s price-slashing competition from imports, diabolically stealing California’s simple varietal labeling strategy and saturating shelf space with perfectly sound, cheap and one-dimensional CaMeZinPiSy (Cabernet-Merlot-Zinfandel-Pinot Noir-Syrah), the taste hybrid rendered without distinction from the five “most popular” red varieties.
<<>> And, as for growers, there’s the big worry about how relentless corporate consolidation of wine production puts the financial squeeze on the farmers, who sadly fit the traditional role of the proletariat in the coming capitalist profit picture. Get ready to see a lot more “No Grapes; No Wine” bumper stickers.
But, at the risk of being an alarmist (which, of course, is exactly what I aim to be!), I think there is something even more basic for the industry to worry about. Boredom!
otably, boredom in the minds of that body of consumers who sustain 95 percent of our 5,000-plus wineries for no better reason than the fact that they find wine “interesting” and are willing to pay handsomely to explore their chosen interests. These are the so-called “wine enthusiasts” who have been the lifeblood of our tenuous North American wine culture. Simply put, when consumer ennui hits these folks, this industry is fried.
