Isn’t it funny how things can get so alienated at a point in time? I guess a lot of folks are focused on politics and the polarization that is being experienced as we head into elections next year. But, how about the current world of food and wine? Here we have another polarization. Food is moving rapidly toward lighter, fresher, natural ingredients. Wine, on the other hand, seems still stuck in the industrialized wines that I talked about in my recent article What Is Wine? (Click here to read the article) Something has to give and I think it is the latter. It is time for wine to assert its natural place as a drink to accompany food and not a side show freak designed and constructed to please some palates who taste (?) wines in massive tastings of a hundred or more wines at a time (Click here to read my article on the Vinous Drive-By). Get real, do you know of anything else in the world where tastings are done hundreds at a time? How about a broccoli tasting? How about a meatball tasting? Are you up for it?

Lighter, fresher, and more natural is better in my view. Leave the steroid wines at home where they belong. If there are “collectors” who think this massive numbers game is their road to riches, then god speed. But, I say buy what you like and like what you drink. It’s no different than the food you eat. Everything else for me is simply irrelevant. The world actually is not so strange if you maintain your perspective. Here’s to balance!

In Vino Veritas,

John Tilson