Vintage Story

Epistemological epiphany:
Life must be lived forwards,
but can only be understood backwards
Mercifully, life may be enjoyed sideways!

Full Moon: April, 2006. Allen Dale Olson a/k/a the Pontiff of Palate, Story Inn’s Wine Connoisseur. Copyright 2006 Story Bed & Breakfast, LLP, d/b/a Story Inn, all rights reserved.

PROLIFERATION

            When I began paying attention to wine immediately after World War II, I became an “instant expert.” For one thing, no one else in my rural Indiana county knew anything about wine, mostly because there wasn’t any around. The only other people in the area who had had any experience with wine were, like me, former GIs who had served in Germany, and nearly all of them had become smitten, as had I, with German beer. How surprised and disappointed we were right off the ship in New York to discover that even in Manhattan, German beer was a scarce commodity. As for wines, well, there just weren’t many to know about.

            My “expertness” was predicated on my knowledge that German wine was white and that it was made in several different parts of Germany. Because I had made a GI pilgrimage to Paris and another to Rome, I could also report that both red and white wines were made in France and Italy. Besides “German,” I had learned such wine names as Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Chianti. I had even learned that wine was produced in both New York and California. It wasn’t even essential to know grape varieties or vintage years in that place in that time. I was the local expert.

            A few years later, when I moved to Washington, D.C., I met other “experts” who knew that wines were produced in the Rhine, Moselle, and Rhone Valleys, in Tuscany and the Piedmont, even in Greece (retsina) and Port and Sherry. Most of them knew various grape varieties and that vintage years were important to European wines. They made me aware that good wine was possible in California, but not a lot was known about it in my circle. Australia and Chile hadn’t been invented yet.

            The point of all this recall is that in just a couple of decades the wine world has proliferated. Each of the fifty states has some kind of commercial wine trade. California has joined the elites in wine production. Australia is not far behind. In America alone, there are more than 3,000 registered wineries. Wine has surpassed beer as a beverage of choice, except maybe at the ball park, where even there it’s making significant inroads.

            There are more magazines, inter-net blogs, and newspaper articles on wine than anyone can keep up with. Wine producers vie with one another to sponsor events, dinners, tastings, and auctions to market their vintages. In spite of the best efforts of various opponents to such practices, 34 states now allow delivery of wine directly from producer to consumer, and the rest are on the verge of having to do so either by legislation or court order.

            All this means that it has become very difficult in a very short time to become a wine “expert.” The term must now be bestowed upon the individual palate. If you like it, buy it, and remember it, you are an expert. Like driving your car or using our computer, you don’t really need to know what’s inside to make use of it.

            But if you really want to delve deeper, there are plenty of coaches, mentors, and publications to help you learn how to evaluate the complexity of a specific wine, its age, its grape variety, and its origin. So our advice to learn more about wine – just like the best way to get to Carnegie Hall – practice, practice, practice. 

Vintage Story is an e-newsletter authored by Ole Olson and published by the Story Inn, and is available free of charge to all who appreciate good wine. Vintage Story is published at each full moon. The author and the Story Inn specifically authorize the republication, reprinting and circulation of any issue Vintage Story so long as due credit is given to the author and to the Story Inn (which holds the copyright).

If any newspaper or website desires to make use of any issue of Vintage Story, we do request that you notify us. Thanks, and here's to your health!