Wine is under attack: accused of everything, including declining consumption, media criticism and poor representation. Yet the sector endures, amid difficulties and fragmentation, continuing to work and support an entire industry. It needs more clarity and perhaps a strong voice to defend it.
The media process
They say that wine gives cancer, that it costs too much, that it is communicated rhetorically and ridiculously. They also say it is produced in an unclear, unsustainable way, that appellations of origin are clowns. Even market disruptions, position rents by producers who have the sole merit of having vineyards in Doc or Docg areas.
Then again, that it allows speculation by restaurateurs and wine merchants who sextuple the purchase price.
Young people can’t stand him anymore, the consumer crisis is palpable, and events dedicated to him are less and less attended.
A disaster, in short.
The reality of the facts
The fact is that in spite of everything, in spite of difficult markets, complicated transportation, various duties, wars, and media attacks, the wine world still exists and all in all, with great difficulty it is true, a great many producers are moving forward.
They attend trade shows, events, go to meet clients and vendors, working harder than before.
They manage to stay afloat. And with them the whole industry that surrounds them, including those who, like us, write about them.
A complicated time (but not only for wine)
It is not easy, it is not a good time, and not only for the wine world, evidently. To say such a thing is even trite.
Of course, if there were more clarity, if clichés were avoided., excessive attacks, as if everything was the fault of wine, it would be better.
But perhaps that is too much to ask.
The perfect scapegoat
Wine seems to be one of the ideal scapegoats for some people.
It communicates little and poorly, it does very little advertising in print and television, talking badly about it does not create problems with dealerships and publishers.
The industry is parceled out, the organizations representing the industry are many and often small.
A sector without a voice
There is no one in fact who can be an effective counterpart to politics, just to give an example.
As we wait for Vinitaly to be held in Verona from April 12 to 15, these considerations seem appropriate to me to begin to take stock of the situation.
What do you think?
