That is a passion for wine that has lasted over 23 years. I have given in recent months, a quiet and careful reflection on the past 2 decades that have affected the world of wine, and that match, incidentally, to my years of wine making personal passion. The result is disappointing. Almost unsettling. Since 1990 I have been involved in a plethora of courses, meetings, tastings, visits to wineries and so on. Well, in all these occasions I always had the strange impression of being in a kind of cultural loggia, where the followers were united by the language of wine and dall'ancestrale recall that this magical drink over them. You want or not want, the wine was always treated as a commodity to be initiated by sectarians, for the chosen few. And every time, even the language of wine was, inevitably, technical, and complex. As the great Gino Veronelli: "Describe the wine is like describing music. E 'must be using a specialized language. Alas. " Even he, perhaps unconsciously, he felt this as a detrimental factor. One thing was certain: those who adhere to the wine tasting classes was always someone who had already, in some ways, closer to the wine, and a second time, of course matured the need to progress in their cultural journey (which costs time and often indifferent).
At the national level, meanwhile, the average per capita consumption of wine has gone from 60 liters in 1990 to 43 liters in 2009. And this in a country that for over 20 years is zero growth. The data is certainly very worrying and points out two things:
1) that the producers and institutions were totally lacking in the last 20 years about the appropriate policies to encourage and promote cultural consumption of wine;
2) that if you do not want that the domestic consumption of wine is reduced to nil over a decade, there is certainly a lot of work. All
remember the spot and you know what you're drinking beer "dell'Assobirra '80s, with Renzo Arbore who exclaimed:" People Meditate, meditate. " The producers of wine, always marked by poor spirit of associations, have never even dreamed of just "copy" a spot like that. But all of them were concerned, against a general decline in domestic consumption, to cultivate that target small group of oenophiles and also attracted many fans (I would say especially) from the cycle of rituals, of exclusivity, elitism and social life that characterize always the world of wine producers and that they have supplied over time. In doing so, however, "normal daily drinkers of wine, in most Italian regions, have decreased over time. Vinitaly last, the producers claimed that "the general consumption of wine decreases, but increases the demand for quality wine." That is to say: "it's raining shit cool, but fortunately we are cool! Besides, why worry so much domestic consumption, when you can sell the wine in Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong and Bombay? And the fashion of the wine of the last decade? Beautiful and stirring that wave all the manufacturers have ridden and fed, what is it worth? A nothing. He did not raise one liter on average consumption per capita. What In fact, he continued, nevertheless, calm and undisturbed (this is something serious) its inexorable and unstoppable descent. This is enough to prove that the wine was nothing in the end, that a speculative bubble-media, a fashion elite, a cultural spot. The basic problem is that wine is now considered as a mere hedonistic pleasure-stimulant (and for that reason, bound to a target always higher), and less like the healthy and pleasant accompaniment to a meal once daily (grounds that consumption fell by 30% in 20 years). And this has meant that most of the wineries did the failure to apply only to niche audiences, neglecting the rest, who snubbed by the marketing company, has, naturally, more and more away from the drink of Bacchus, turning his daily consumption to alternative beverages, most "popular", more "practical" and decidedly "less demanding" (such as colas, beer and various carbonated drinks), but also very unhealthy (except for beer, that data is spread by a few days ago Assobirra, seems to have passed the-go wine consumption with 20.6% compared to 18% of those who still choose the drink of Dionysus). Wine consumption in the collective imagination is increasingly identified with a kind of life often snobbish, class-exclusive. Most of the experts has not yet realized that continuing so, end up almost to zero consumption of wine in a decade. As someone said, we made the mistake of loading the wine added meanings and values \u200b\u200bdifferent from those that should be producing a form of subjugation and / or discomfort by the man in the street, "not experts", who has gradually moved away from the wine of course, preferring other forms of beverage. Not long ago, someone was talking of Italy, with good reason, as of "the wine country that does not know the wine", hoping for a proper training school at the age of wine consumption (in countries such as France, wine studied at school). A socio-cultural paradox of unprecedented gravity and which has no peer. And on this ground, each institution, public or private, can and must do its part, big or small. Urge, more than ever, a new cultural way, genuine and effective, in a delicate mix of training and information enabling a natural and pleasing rapprochement of all men and women, "people" and not "consumers", the most ancient drink , attractive and healthy in history. It will certainly be a long and difficult and expensive. And it's an exciting challenge that we all, we can not escape.
CARAMEL CROWN
Sommelier AIS
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