Why Sommeliers Matter More Than Wine Scores

Mar 31, 2015

(Eater) - The era of wine arrogance is over. It was slowly dismantled by a chorus from the ether. Unlike the recent past when an ex-attorney could anoint himself the palate of America, a new generation of wine professionals seized control by embracing the Old World discipline of the sommelier. Since they are young and cool, they call themselves Somms. The good ones take their craft seriously and have developed finely tuned BS meters. Instead of a singular voice, they talk amongst each other in public internet forums, at wine seminars and gatherings. They challenge preconceived notions, kill sacred cows, encourage, question, prod … but the biggest difference between the new communal voice of wine and the past wine critic is that these professionals rose through the ranks of cuisine and service. Their loyalty is to their patron’s palate and, hopefully, not their own ego.

Wine Comes to America

A brief history of American wine is needed for perspective. At one time, wine was utilitarian. Fermentation was a way to preserve fruit while creating a safe beverage free of the water-borne pathogens that plagued pre-chlorine civilizations. As new frontiers were settled, John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, planted apples for hard cider while missionaries planted grapes for sacramental wines. These beverages were fermented in wood vats with no refrigeration. They were riddled with harmless bacteria that imparted a gamut of non-fruit flavors from mustiness, to leather, to horseshit. Though safe to drink, they would never be confused with fine beverages. They satisfied the need for calories, sated thirst, cured boredom and killed pain … and every once in a while, the weather would cooperate and someone would make a sublime wine—but that was the exception. In the mid-1800s pioneering winemaker Agoston Haraszthy, a man considered the father of California viticulture, imported hundreds of varieties of European vinifera (or grape vines) and attempted to make wine on par with the great beverages of the Old World. But, in doing so, he inadvertently created the first known infestation of phylloxera (a microscopic louse that feeds on the roots of grape vines thus killing the plant) in California that proceeded to wipe out his Sonoma vineyards, and even traveled all the way to Europe nearly destroying all the vineyards there as well.

As wineries recovered from this blight, they struggled to make drinkable wines let alone fine wines. But what nature couldn’t completely destroy, puritanical law attempted to finish off—prohibition almost bludgeoned the wine industry to an inch of death.

The Rise of the Critic

After repeal, American wine was disrespected. Most was made in volume at the lowest cost per unit and was bottled without barrel aging (small French and American oak barrels did not come into wide use until the '60s and ‘70s). Other than a few outliers, most California wine was unrefined compared to its European counterparts and suffered the perception as cheap plonk. Simply put, great wine was imported and inferior wine was domestic. The only way out of this negative perception of American wine was to position it as exclusive and elitist. Wine producers began to emulate the image of the European wine snob with classical music playing in the background. Wine was served by monkey-suited, tastevin swirling, arrogant a-holes whose wine opening rituals were more about intimidating or making consumers feel like ignorant neophytes than educating or expanding the fold. The message was clear: wine was for the privileged elite while beer was for the masses. This confused messaging created a void where a consumer advocate was needed. In walks Robert Parker Jr. with his simplistic 100-point scale used for judging wine in his newsletter, The Wine Advocate, which garnered attention after he reviewed the 1982 vintage of Bordeaux, calling it excellent in light of many critics who held opposing views. Now, instead of learning the nuances of variety, region, or vintage, the wine buyer was armed with a definitive guide. This wine was better than that wine because it scored more points.

Parker’s Wine Advocate publication came at a perfect time. People distrusted wineries but were insecure with their own palate. American wine, unlike Old World wine regions, evolved separate from other agriculture and devoid of local culinary traditions. It’s hard to imagine now, but there was no locavore movement. Wine came from one place and food came from another. At the time, American wine was judged as if it were an athletic event—by which wine grabbed one's attention in a blind tasting and not by how well it paired with cuisine. Technical prowess and ripeness reigned supreme in place of the traditional ideas of terroir, typicity, complexity or deliciousness. Elegant, subtle wines were passed over for bombastic powerhouses.

A Perfect Storm

As the 100-point system was rising in popularity throughout the 80s, a bug was also rising … the dreaded phylloxera (the same root louse that almost destroyed the wine industry in the 1800s) mutated to attack modern vines. In our arrogance, winemakers decided a hybrid of vinifera with native American rootstock could thwart the louse, but nature has a way of destroying a monoculture and, since everyone was planting this hybrid grape rootstock known as AXR1, it provided a perfect environment for the louse to adapt and mutate. This led to a mass replanting of California vineyards in the late 1980s and 90s. Normally, a winery would take cuttings from vines that were well adapted to the area, but now winery owners had a model to shoot for based on the new style of wines garnering the highest scores. Nurseries started supplying "French" clones of varieties that ripened earlier in the California sun and developed more sugar than the old "heirloom" selections. These vines created more powerful wines and, as more wineries were rewarded with higher scores, more of these varieties and clones were planted.


Share: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Furl Facebook Google Yahoo Twitter

Comments:

 
Leave a comment





Advertisement