For something completely different or the wine crisis
Following the latest ProWein Fair in March, the alarms have been raised: the wine world is facing a crisis without precedents.
Less consumption, increasing prices mainly due to the inflation and the Russian aggression on Ukraine and the excessive production are seen to be major problems.
Even though all these issues also worry me and make me think on the best ways to present wine to a younger generation which is now arriving to the market, there is another common idea in the articles ( at the end of the post I offer a list of them) I have read which have awoken me some concern:
the idea that part of the crisis in the German market comes from foreign wines. They are cheaper, they do not respect the same quality parameters that we have to, they receive bigger subventions from their governments, and the list of complaints keeps on in what seems to me as a simplistic right wing propaganda program.
In a moment that the political situation in Germany reveals clear signs of instability and sensibility due to the revealed plan of the AfD to expel immigrants and the growing racist motivated crimes all around the country, this seems to me, at least, worrisome.
The single thought of accusing foreign wines of ruining the internal market is completely against the whole logic of wine. Things like terroir, the specificity of certain grapes, the offer of different tastes and preserved ways of wine making can not be that easily substituted and I find it difficult to believe that they play a role in the moment of deciding which wine to buy.
A potential buyer of Amarone is not going to buy a Samtrot as an alternative, but that is just me saying.
It is particularly hard for me not to be demagogic right now, but there are certain things which seem only too obvious.
Portugal has always produced more wine than Portuguese can drink and so the export market plays an important role on how the wines are done, promoted and presented. My personal experience with wine fairs reveals that German producers are often too focused on themselves and on the German market and their interaction with the public is not really the best. Lack of English skills, lack of interest in the person in front of you and some slight arrogance are some of my critics.
Still, I have to say that at the Pfalz wine fair held in November last year in Hamburg, I was positively impressed with the new blood coming into the German wine scene. A lot of new wine makers with a more open and human understanding of the whole process involving wine (from its production to its final sale and, subsequently, to the drinking experience that it will bring) is coming into play. And that gives me hope that things will change and a more reasonable approach to wine and to its growing challenges will be reached, without blindly accusing foreigners of being the major guilt of all problems.
List of articles:
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