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In this video, let’s discuss if the wine industry is really old school as some critics say and lacks ability to adapt to new trends?
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**CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO:
0:00 Is wine industry stuck in the past?
1:10 Chasing trends…
2:52 The slow art of winemaking
4:49 Wine is modern where it matters
6:41 Real stories
#wineindustry #wineeducation #wine
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39 Comments
I think gatekeeping in wine is the biggest problem with the industry and probably what's hurting it.
Wine industry should remain right where it is and even go back.
I just wanted to say this video is really beautiful and reminded me of the many reasons why I love wine and think it is exceptional! Your passion and knowledge really shine, and I thank you for making this video.
You said it straight away: in harmony with nature. Most of the modern man knows nothing about harmony or nature! IMHO. Especially cowboys and Indians in the west.
There is not just one major challenge for the wine and alcohol industry in general. The key challenge is finding ways to produce beverages that can do without alcohol. The global trend is moving toward lower consumption. The WHO has just recently issued another warning against alcohol consumption. One may find this exaggerated, but it is indeed a factor that cannot be ignored.
Therefore, the greatest scientific efforts should be devoted to finding ways to replace alcohol as a flavor carrier as far as possible, or at least to reduce alcohol content as much as possible.
Was waiting for Agnese new video ☺ Very interresting topic !
More and more wineries are converting to certified sustainable, organic, and biodynamic to produce a better product. Every winemaker you have interviewed on your podcasts speaks of evolving farming practices to cope with the issue of consistent climate change. New wine growing regions are developing in areas once deemed to cold. The wine industry is and must be ever changing to flourish and perhaps survive.
Agneses, I think the price of wine is part of the problem. I'm in my early 70's, it wasn't until I had more expendable income, when I started drinking a lot more wine. Having said that, climate change will force the wine industry to modernize. Just my 2 cents. Great video
Thank God most of Europe and some other places, have laws on the production of wine, which insures its heritage, ie. history and hopefully its quality .
In this world of ADHD and advertising , the desire for such things as pumpkin spiced wines and other such beverages, is in constant change. With the advertising of what is supposed to be good or hot at the time,leading the way.
There’s a reason wine has a history going back 1000’s of years, while things like; (Smoked Salmon and Pickle vodka), well the title says it all 🤮
So no, after 1000’s of years and religious vigor of the monks. I think the wine process has been proven. But that’s not to say understanding , improving, and implementing modern techniques to ensure high quality at lower prices, should be overlooked. So long as those techniques don’t dislodge the true authenticity of the grape, wine or it’s terroir 🍷
At least that’s how I see it.
Great video! Thanks, Agnes.
Let me think. Is wine stuck in the past?
Let me enjoy a 20 or 30 year port with this cigar and get back to you on that.
Good wine is about respecting the grape, the land, the producers & consumers. You can do that with most modern methods. Can't do it without some of the history, tried & tested methods and…thought! Cutting corners, trying to maximise profit, treating workers badly…they are not modern inventions! So perhaps less History/Heritage vs Modern/Progress, perhaps more about if the wine has heart, care, soul? As ever, great video – thank you.
I grew up in the middle of the US where there were no wineries. Now, there's wineries popping up there, and from what I"ve tried, they're not very good. Maybe it's because of the region, maybe it's lack of experience. I'm guessing it's both.
However, my parents used to make wine, but they also used local wild fruits in addition to grapes. Their wines tended to be on the sweet end, but I'd say their best wines were about as good as a $50 to $60 bottle of more traditional wines. The larger local attempts at things like merlot or cab, I'd say, are as good as $5 to $10 bottles, at best.
So, I think there's room for experimentation in areas that aren't very good for growing traditional varieties. Trying to compete with established regions isn't playing to their strengths. And their strengths aren't in growing merlot, cab, zin, etc.
Ha, and now after watching the entire episode, I say to you; well said. Another great insightful episode. 🍷🤔😊
Many of the wine bars, wineries, and other wine-related businesses in my area have seen a reduction in business lately, and the crowds at these places are usually quite old. However, I have observed some exceptions. In the last year or so, two bars that focus on "natural" wine have opened. This isn't a legal category, but it usually refers to wine that is produced using organic or biodynamic grapes, does not have added sulfites, and often uses wild yeast. Sometimes, it tastes a little strange, but it can be very good, and I find that it is far less likely to give me a headache than industrially produced California wine. These natural wine bars have been very busy, and with a much younger crowd that I see elsewhere. They don't focus on the familiar varietals, regions, and styles, but people are evidently open to them. I don't know if this is just a fad and the young people will move on to the next thing in a year or two. I guess time will tell. If places like these continue to be busy in a few years, then maybe it is a sign that the industry needs to continue to move in this direction.
Another area where I see success in a struggling industry is in some of the local wineries. They don't even need to make great wine in order to be successful. Mediocre wine, combined with an inviting atmosphere and live music, brings in the crowds, including young people. The wine has to be just good enough. Having an informal, inviting, and unpretentious setting certainly helps with people who are looking more for an experience than quality wine, and there is no reason why places that serve great wine can't learn from this. There is a local winery that is a friendly little hole in the wall with live music on the weekends, and it attracts big crowds, but it also makes top quality, world class wine. I was happy when I discovered it.
Packaging is an area where the industry could use some changes. I'm sick of bothering with corks when screw caps are better in most situations, and I hate it when a bottle of wine is ruined by a tainted cork. (The spirits industry needs to get away from corks too.) Also, why is it that the only wine packaged in boxes is lower quality, highly industrial stuff that causes headaches? (I'm in the United States. I hear that there is more variety and better quality in boxes in some other places.) I live alone, and I don't always want to open a bottle and then struggle to go through it before it goes bad. Sometimes, all I want is half a drink, and I don't drink every day. If I open a bottle today, I can't guarantee that I will feel like drinking more of it tomorrow or the next day. Single serving containers, half-bottles, and boxes would be very useful for me. These days, when all I want is a small drink, I usually get into my spirits. They don't go bad, and concepts such as terroir and sustainable production are becoming more common in that industry, particularly in mezcal and whisky. Beer is great too since it comes in single serving containers.
Very good video, on a very important topic!!
concerning the heavy bottles, the EU have implemented a new tax on packaging, based on weight. This hits proportionally much harder on wine, than other products.
The biggest difference will be felt at the more inexpensive wines, where the tax will be a bigger part of the price, than more expensive wines.
There have been a trend, in Denmark, towards those big bottles that weighs between 900 to 1100 grams, for a 75 xl bottle. Most of the, will come in lighter bottles going forward, but there will still be producers, that will keep the heavy bottles for astetic and commercial reasons.
Dear Agnes, Ten years ago, I started to make my own wine from my own grapes grown here in Sweden! Since then, my respect and admiration for grape growers and wine makers in the world has sky rocketed. It's an art!
You know, something I’ve always wanted to see more in the wine industry is sugarcane wine. Wine made from sugarcane juice is so hard to find outside of areas where sugarcane is grown.
The one thing I would like the wine world to embrace more is wines made from other fruits and berries. Blueberry/Blackberry wine is terrific. So is Peach wine. There are so many possibilities.
Fresher wines with less alcohol is the trend for the younger generation. Look at the shift Australia is making, away from the heavy and bold Shiraz (called dad-wines).
Another trend is quality over quantity. The way Mosel region changed over the last 20 years is astonishing.
Younger people drink less. Partly a shift in attitude but also because they have less money to spend. There are way too many grapes being grown on top of that. Better to face reality than ignore it.
Great points! Listening to just one of your podcasts, it becomes quite apparent that the wine industry is the most focused on creating a more vibrant ecosystem through biodynamic and regenerative farming.
I'd add one more to the wine industry's responsiveness: making wines more approachable by making them require less aging, particularly in regions that previously required lots of aging such as Bordeaux and Barolo. That is a definite plus no matter the wine consumer's age.
I think so. France shouldnt be put on a pedestal and California isnt the only option.
As a small scale winemaker, I follow new techniques in the vineyard and in the cellar, every year I gain more experience and better equipment and understanding of what maximized the potential quality, but in the end nature determines the final outcome.
all I care about is the price vs perceived value. I will not pay more for a wine just because they used lighter weight bottle or decided to become biodynamic. That is their choice alone
Younger generations are more concerned then even with their health and therefore wine (and alcohol) consumption is declining. In such a scenario, the wine world should make a great effort to appeal to the gen Z, make wine understandable, affordable and teaching young generations.
Instead, you get a highly obscure and codified world, where to acquire a basic understanding of wine either you spend €1500 for the first 2 levels of WSET (I am counting the 3rd as optional, for real aficionados), or you spend months and hours of your time trying to get some basic understanding from scattered books, videos, and tastings.
Not to metion the fact that wines from the most important and classic regions, which should constitute the benchmark for a newcomer, are going up in prince incessantly, with a real loss of control after 2022.
Can you really blame people, especially the younger and eager to learn, to be annoyed at the fact the wine world is refusing to modernize not its traditions, but at least its communication strategies and failing to make product availability (at a fair price) easier?
Wine is valuable because it is stuck in the past. One of my grandfather's friends used to say that we've been making wine for 10,000 years and every generation has learned something, but with what this generation learned, there will be no more wine. He was very much opposed to anything (non-indigenous yeast, sugar, sulfur in red wine, even worse chemicals) other than grapes ever being used. I think that's a little narrow minded, but I want wine that tastes like it did 100 or even 1000 years ago. Leave innovation to the cocktail makers. None of the hard seltzers Gen Z likes appeal to me, and wine will never be able to compete on price, so why chase that market?
Which wines make food taste better?
With everything so readily available a click away, many people of newer generations are used to complete and total immediate gratification, and the thought of aging a wine or a beer for decades is unfathomable. What's the solution to that with regards to winemaking and "aged" tasting wine? Forced "slow'" oxidation, centrifuges to speed up sediment concentration , etc? Artificially aging wine could be an innovation that I personally seen. Regardless, both beer and wine industries are absolutely saturated and the "allocation" model to give a sense of scarcity or demand at a reasonable price is all but dead for a few lucky winemakers and brewmasters.
If you had put a bow tie on your dog, I would have spit out my wine with laughter
Wine is slow to change, but in the new world…
I think wine is ageless. In my experience of the last 30 years drinking wine in Australia, especially the last 10 years, it is very clear that winemakers have changed their ways to appeal to the current wine drinkers tastes and cellaring expectations. Not that I'm particularly pleased with these changes I completely understand why they had to be made and yet I'm still excited to see what future vintages have install for us.
Agnese ❤️ is never old or never stale, she is always fresh and refreshing 🍷🍾🥂
I like the wines to keep tradition, but I also like modernity. The chateaux, instead of just making a second wine, could make the first wine in two styles ''trad'' and ''new age''. Ch lafite, ch. Funky Lafite, and Carruades (and Karioka ?)
Wine is modernizing – but in the wrong direction. The American wine consumer, raised on Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, wants wine that is bold and tasty. We drink it like a cocktail, at happy hour or a weekend party, with no thought to how it goes with food other than, "red with meat, white with seafood." We were raised drinking milk with our spaghetti and meatballs, and wine is not natural to our pallets. Terroir, vintage, aging, acidity… these terms mean nothing to us. But the cute label on the front does. Yes, we read the back of the bottle, falling prey to the descriptions of the wonderfulness inside it. But they all say the same thing anyway, (and we know it's not going to smell like elderberries anyway,) so we really look more at the front of the bottle (…and also what the guy next to us is buying.)
Of course, I'm describing the mass market, and the mega wineries from CA, but that is probably the biggest chunk of sales in the U.S. Small scale wineries in other states do work hard to bring an interesting product to their tasting rooms. They are a pleasure to visit.
I think that wines are in a good place right now, and will see lots of changes in the near future anyway, due to the change of global climate. Social media and trends are the worst, and they can experiment with cheap wines all they want (I remember Oz Clarke trying onion flavored wine. . .), like with cooking-grade Matcha vs "ceremonial" matcha, for real tea.
While I would agree that the winemakers do not follow Trends and fads, the retailers most definitely do, and dare I argue, there definitely seems to be a negative undertone to your quip about buttery Oaky Chardonnay and jammy fruit bomb reds which came across to me as a bit of a snobbish gatekeeper vibe
I think trying to compare it to experimental craft beer and their unique ingredients might be a little bit of hyperbole room for experimentation in blending and fermentation and aging techniques. You can do your absolute best and sometimes nature is just going to cooperate. The AVA here is notorious for having some really difficult and intense weather that can either create amazing vintages or completely destroyed a crop. For example, maybe one year out of 10 of the Pinot Noir is grown here are worth bottling as a single varietal vintage. It feels really bad being stuck with trying to push a subpar wine despite doing everything right and your best hope is that people forget about or at worst people grimace about when they remember it…. or take a chance and do something interesting and memorable
Never conform. No need for tiktoks. I agree, it shouldnt be adjusted. We’re talking about something thats been unchanged for centuries. We’re not so important to need to change that now.