There is no truth in wine; I like to think your interpretation is worth mine. Then, simple question of expertise where I allow myself to dot the “i” for what, in the end, will always be my own interpretation.
Besides, and we have already talked about it a few times in these posts, where does my own freedom of interpretation begin and where does yours end? After all, the wine you love might not be my cup of tea, the reverse being true as well. Nothing is less elusive than an art that wants to be ephemeral.
If the interpretation always remains somewhat uncertain, does the perception of the type of product, for its part, suffer from all the plausibility required? A reader was recently amused by the fact that rosé wine is not drunk year round, as I mentioned most recently with the Movement for the Liberation of Seasonal Rosé (MLRS). For her, rosé is summer, full stop. Of course, I respect her perception of the matter, but how did she come to be conditioned in this way and, above all, to have such a strong position?
This time, a “misinformation” would like that the third week of November, with the advent of Beaujolais Nouveau, serve as the crowning glory for the Gamay Primeur, while decades of basely mercantile tactics have robbed it of what it has left. credibility. An unfortunate qualitative drift of the product, which is not about to be rehabilitated in the minds of the public. Such a waste ! As a Compagnon du Beaujolais, my gamay is hurting here. But the industry, fortunately, has some hope of shining again because of a new generation of winegrowers and enlightened consumers who support it. The damage is done, however.
There is also a misinformation system pushed to the limit of disinformation, especially when major commercial interests are at stake, such as the advent of a new vintage on the Place de Bordeaux, for example. A system promoted by a specialized press (including influencers) which is sometimes condescending and which relays an all too often jovialist portrait of the quality of the vintage in question. We should be wary of a vintage described as a “winegrower’s vintage”, a euphemism if there is one which designates an average, even ungrateful year. Same misinformation, but on a different scale however, that these perfectly interchangeable back labels affixed to the bottles of wine (and often poorly translated!), All creating, to the palate of the drinker, an explosion of this mixture of red berries not knowing what to do with it. The nuance – like this infantilizing “copy and paste” – would be welcome here.
And then there are these approvals in natural and agrobiological wine, but above all, above all, this High Environmental Value (HVE) certification, of which the Alerte aux toxins association already noted the semantic drift, even the integrity, in September 2020, in denouncing the presence of pesticides in HVE certified bottles. We learn there – and I quote the review Red & White, who had made an editorial – “that no ban on the use of plant protection products including CMR molecules (carcinogens, mutagens, reprotoxic) has been included in the conditions of approval”.
This fashionable “green bleaching” for red, white and rosé wines also allows a wine industry to be up to date while giving itself a clear conscience. In short, you shouldn’t always believe everything you read!