Not on the same page.

Slotovino - A plea for Diversity in Wine. That's the slogan. That's our mission. For ten years we have been taking delight in finding, tasting and suggesting rare and rarer grape varieties in order to make a contribution to diversity in wine. What was wrong in that? We thought things were going in that direction. Indeed with the publication of so many great books including 'Wine Grapes' by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and Jose Vouillamoz, 'Native Wine Grapes of Italy' by Ian D'Agata, 'Jura Wine' and 'Wines of the French Alps, Savoie Bugey and beyond' by Wink Lorch, 'Natural Wine' (Isabelle Legeron), Amber Revolution (Simon J. Woolf) and really a lot of others, we thought things were going our way.

An article by James Lawrence in today's 'Winesearcher - 'The week in wine' gives an insight into the real world to which we had been blind all this time.

No safety in numbers for wine grapes.

Diversity is everything in wine, according to the intelligentsia, but it doesn't pay wineries' bills.

Conventional wisdom tells us never to put all our eggs in one basket. The wine industry suggests otherwise.

...diversity in wine terms is a bad idea. At best, it is an indulgence of the trade, at worst it may lead to commercial suicide. It is also patronizing. Do consumers really need to be told that they should be expanding their palates? What justifies the imperative to continually proselytize the esoteric? (our emphasis)


...there is  a lucrative opportunity in giving consumers more of what they want, particularly at higher price points. With the premiumization narrative going into overdrive, there is surely more sense in marketing expensive versions of Malbec and Sauvignon, rather than pushing Bonarda or Marlborough Verdelho.  

...However, let's step outside the bubble of funky grape varieties and hipster-friendly wine lists for one second. The vast majority of the industries' key employers – responsible for maintaining the livelihoods of many millions of families – rely on mass retail. They're operating in a fiercely competitive arena...Now is not the time to be embracing the esoteric, hoping consumers will take a punt on the obscure. 

The trade won't survive and prosper by pushing the weird and wonderful; it will stay in business by delivering familiar tropes – hopefully at higher price points.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

As Mark Twain reportedly said: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket is all wrong. I tell you: put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket."

Lawrence also writes

'According to The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), Cabernet Sauvignon - excluding table grapes – is still the world's most popular variety. Merlot occupies the second spot, followed by Tempranillo. The 13 most popular grapes are planted on a third of the vine area of the world, according to OIV.'

Ian D'Agata wrote previously;

'Statistics are for losers.'

and on investigating a particularly obscure variety,

'I cannot begin to say how happy I am to have contributed to clearing the cobwebs of time from Roussin de Morgex. In fact, I consider this to be one of the highest points reached in my life devoted to wine....'

D'Agata's passion on the subject is the result of an entirely different outlook on wine not to say attitude to life. We have always been struck by the conservatism of the wine world. We have had to accept that most people see wine only as generic - almost a condiment. They have no interest to know anything about it other than if it is white or red (and probably how much it costs).

The so-called wine -lover is likely to be much more excercised by the country of origin (we've even heard it said that 'wine is by definition French'), in the narrowest terms the region (probably Bordeaux or Burgundy), how many points it has and again how much it costs.

It is still a mystery to us why the vast majority of the market falls into these two categories. It seems as though they have given up on the sheer complexity of wine and grab a the most convenient life-raft and cling to it for evermore. We even have a friend who having discovered a wine he likes, wants to drink only that wine for evermore.

Things are improving, no doubt about it but Lawrence is still able to refer to less familiar grape varieties as commercial suicide.

We're obviously not on the same page.

PS. Mark Twain/Samuel Langhorne Clemens also wrote 

There are no standards of taste in wine... Each man's own taste is the standard, and a majority vote cannot decide for him or in any slightest degree affect the supremacy of his own standard.

Very much on our page.