I’ve written before in this space about what I like to call the fog of wine — that state we all get into from time to time; feeling lost in a cumulus of appellations, varietals, scores, ratings, pairings and terminology that, like a true fog, seems determined to swallow us up and keep us from seeing what’s right in front of us.
It’s not, I think, that wine is any more challenging along these lines than any other worthwhile subject one makes an effort to investigate, even if the goal isn’t mastery, but just the kind of competence that confers a bit of freedom and confidence in making choices.
In my own experience, clarity can be gained either by lumping together things that are the same (perhaps just going by different names) or by clearly separating things that differ. Settling a few issues of this kind can go a long way to helping us find and keep our own bearings. Having them in our pocket can be like a compass to which we occasionally refer.
The mists that tend to collect around the concepts quality, style and preference are particularly thick and persistent. It’s fair to say that much of the conversation that goes on in the wine corner bounces from one point of this triangle to another. This is a particularly good example of concepts it helps to keep in their own separate and proper places, so let’s perform some mental housekeeping and see if it doesn’t tidy things up a bit for you.
The Quality Box. Here we’ll put all the things that we understand to count toward actually making a better sort of wine than it would otherwise be. Think first of the raw material. Fruit quality will have reference both to a location where the soils and prevailing atmospheric conditions are known to be favorable and to the techniques used to propagate, cultivate and take an apprpriately-scaled harvest from healthy vines.
A propitious site combined with a skilled, experienced, conscientious winegrower are fundamental to building quality. Wine that has to be remediated in the cellar by additives and technology is, by definition, sub par.
Since pretty much every step a winemaker takes to build quality into wine costs something in money or labor, there is a retail price point below which a basic level of quality can’t be expected.
The Style Box. Nature is capable of many things. Making wine is not one of them. In every case where a healthy, drinkable, serviceable wine exists, it will be a result of perhaps hundreds of decisions made by a human being managing the process.
While appellation rules provide a template for reinforcing a socially-constructed, consensus style for wine produced under its aegis, there is always latitude for the winemaker to exercise creativity, to innovate or to turn back the clock and hew to a style that may no longer be considered fashionable. A perfect uniformity of style is not something any appellation should aim for or with which consumers should be pleased.
Most importantly, style should be understood to be independent of quality, which can and does assume a a wide spectrum of shapes, colors and temperaments.
The Preference Box. So, your wine has inherent quality, appropriate to its price point. You’ve settled on the idea that quality can present itself in many forms, and you’ve cultivated an open mind respecting winemaker prerogative to make the style of wine each finds most appropriate and rewarding. At this point, congratulate yourself. You’ve already come a long way. What remains is the much less strenous activity of deciding which of the many faces wine presents that you find most agreeable. After all, we are each the world’s leading expert on our own tastes.
Quality and style can come in to this, of course. The important thing is not to actually confuse personal preference with either of the other corners of the triangle.
Your preference for one wine over another may have something to do with quality, but your liking or not liking cannot be, by itself, its measure. Nor should your preferences attempt to circumscribe the winemaker’s freedom.
This is especially true because, as wine drinkers, our taste is capable of maturation, evolution and just plain change over time. It needs room to grow.
In short, then, quality is not shackled to a particular style; nor is style a reliable indicator of quality. The fact that you prefer one wine to another does not guarantee its quality and knowing that a given wine is made to high standards of quality doesn’t obligate you to like it. Got all that?
Knowing this may not entirely disspate the fog of wine, but it may well improve the visibility.