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Tim's Ravings

Posted by Tim Stevens on

Summer 2021 Ravings

In vino veritas?? Not too sure about that. There’s an awful lot of nonsense written about wine.

This rant was provoked by some ill-informed gibberish in a well-respected news outlet. Greatest Hits included “wine under screw cap doesn’t age”, “anything with limited production (eg only 300 bottles produced) will ensure a more age-worthy selection” and “Shiraz ages for 5 years”.

Fortunately there are plenty of interesting, knowledgeable wine writers out there, including some new-ish bloggers. I’m all for democratisation, and find transparency a plus when reading individuals vs corporations - no paid promotions dressed up to look like features, nor unspoken quid pro quos for advertising. A score attributed to 'Halliday' these days is most likely a judgement from one of the many wine writers employed by the brand with very different tastes to the great man himself (it's why we note Halliday for when James gives us a rating vs Australian Wine Companion when it's someone else). Wine tasting is of course subjective. I follow a few writers I rate, and use them as a guide when I want to experiment.

Widespread but innocuous truth massaging is prevalent in the industry eg. Wine Australia’s “near perfect growing and ripening conditions for 2021”. The rain through spring, summer and into autumn experienced in most of NSW could hardly be classified as near perfect, which absolutely doesn’t mean the wines won’t be, but let’s not pretend it wasn’t a battle. I have a standing bet with a mate about how long it will take for someone in a certain neighbouring wine region to declare even the most challenging season “Vintage of the Century”. No one likes a whinger, but a truthful story about triumph over adversity is more interesting than a whitewash isn’t it?

My blood really starts to boil however, when it comes to the people who make deliberately misleading and manipulative claims such as those being made at the moment for “Keto wines”. Social media is full of posts presenting wine with average levels of residual sugar and alcohol as a guilt-free, 'pure' and a healthy choice. It is reprehensible, and total BS. Any hairy questions are answered in private messages presumably to avoid being caught out in even more lies.

While I’m here, blood still on the boil, I’ll turn my attention to Naked Wines, a multinational retailer posing as saviour to consumers and small winemakers alike, while they market 6 bottles of wine for $29 (I suggest you read the small print) for far less than the cost of production of a decent bottle; while making claims that bite the hand that feeds them eg. that consumers are being ripped off because the average cost of wine in a $30 bottle is $7. They conveniently ignore all of the indirect costs of being in the wine business that are not directly associated with making a specific bottle of wine, not least feeding the family of the person who grows the grapes and makes, then sells the wine. "How do you make a small fortune as a winemaker? Start with a large one." Hahahaha. Seriously though...

Nonsense about wine isn’t new of course. It used to be in service of snobbery and elitism. Now it’s about dollars or likes and ‘what is truth anwyay?’.

Oh well. Good thing you’re here with us at Huntington. Great wine, no middlemen, no bullshit. Cheers to that

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