He is about thirty years younger than me, so a generation or so. I came of age wine-wise close to fifty years ago. Both of us are in the business so we both know our way around the wine tasting table but a week ago we disagreed profoundly on the wines we were tasting.
This is a vendor I trust completely, by the way. I let him write his own orders for me when he has a push on something he thinks would work here. So I was very surprised by the conversation assessing the merits of the Chilean wines we were tasting. I started by remarking that the wines were forward and aiming for the California palate. He added commentary about their richness and compared them to the French model and here's where I think the chasm exists.
Most of the wines on American store shelves are different from those of a couple generations ago. Not the great estate wines, but those from the worldwide mass marketers. They know where their bread is buttered and they butter it well.
In the previous post (and probably several others before that) we talked about the many technological improvements in winemaking that have resulted in fresher, more quaffable wines. Having gotten into wines when I did, I still remember the drier winier wines on the shelf that were consistent with historical European tastes. I also remember the somewhat rough California field blend reds that had their own charm, albeit in their imperfection. And then there were the extreme bad examples of the way things were fifty years ago including the somewhat oxidized or cork-tainted fare that was more common than we would like to admit.
So the paradigm shift that has happened in wine tastes means the younger taster only recognizes the cleaned-up model while the older guy remembers the way things used to be. And that's alright.
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