I'm actually surprised how technical a lot of commercial wine production is. Things are done very much from an industrial chemistry point of view at certain price points, but that's not the impression you get with wine.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Essentially, wines are fermented grape juice, so I'm trying to make the point that the wine world is about scores and marketing and kind of creating a scarce resource where they don't really exist.
Slow food, free-range, no steroids, eat local, and natural winemaking are all part of a general yearning for simpler times. But the fact is that most winemakers these days, big and small, have drastically lessened the use of chemicals in the vineyard, embracing such concepts as organically grown, biodynamic, and sustainable.
The world has changed - through technology, through wine-making techniques, the quality of wine is greater than it's ever been. Whereas ten, fifteen years ago it was very easy to find lots of bad wine, it's kind of hard now. The technology, the science - it's like, are you kidding? We're in the golden years of wine!
Our very long-term prospective hinges on making the best possible wine we can.
Winemakers have to adapt to what they're given by nature: the vines, the fruit, the soil and the weather.
Critics have done the wine industry a lot of good overall.
To buy very good wine nowadays requires only money. To serve it to your guests is a sign of fatigue.
Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it.
Wine is valued by its price, not its flavour.
The reality is that I'm making better wine than I thought I would. The whole process is simple but beautiful.