Some fine wine books (which many readers are likely to have read!): "The Story of Wine" by Hugh Johnson; "Cork Dork" by Bianca Bosker; "Inventing Wine" by Paul Lukacs; "Judgment of Paris" by George Taber; and "American Vintage" by Paul Lukacs.
While short attention spans / easy distractions are true in general for the modern era, there's still a fair bit of hope. As someone with one foot in WineStack and one foot in FilmStack, it's been fascinating seeing the sheer explosion of creativity and output from the Film side. The posts are LONG, and in-depth to the point where even I'm sometimes incredulous that anyone could possibly be reading them and then the comment sections are straight-up hopping with activity.
Part of it is the excitement of the new: FilmStack is hardcore about reimagaining what film writing and filmmaking can and should be. Critics are working hard to reframe film criticism away from personal opinion to deeper engagement with the material - it isn't about whether you like something or not, but what the work is doing and offering, and how any viewer might engage with it. Filmmaking is even more of a hot topic as we're eagerly banding togethee to find ways to craft new production and distribution environments that no longer depend on the traditional systems Because the traditional systems simply aren't working for actual humans any more.
I don't quite have the words for this yet, but thinking out loud and in real time: Wine writing may need a similar overhaul / reimagining. Not necessarily just in terms of how to reach younger / new readers, but also what is this writing meant to do in the first place? What are we chronicling and why? For whom? The industry is certainly going through a rough patch just like film is, so what is wine writing doing in order to combat this and offer hope, new energy, and excitment around wine? I think most wine writers mean to accomplish all of the above, but most wine writing today looks a lot like wine writing from 20 years ago, and that's unlikely to be a good thing. The solution isn't just jumping to Tiktok and YouTube (though that's likely part of it) but it's also about reimagining / reconsidering what the public needs from us, and/or can get exicited by WITH us. We have to figure out what the difference is between talking to each other and talking to them. Because there's always a difference.
“Wine writing may need a similar overhaul / reimagining (in terms of) what is this writing meant to do in the first place? What are we chronicling and why? For whom?” I agree with your comment wholeheartedly, this observation in particular. Tom’s article is excellent, but I think the smartphone’s impact has been exacerbated by the weakened ecosystem in which it’s wreaked such havoc. Over that 20-year period, the public hasn’t been conditioned to nourish itself on sound, deep, original, touching contemplation about wine. “One of the most powerful, and perhaps accidental, foes of the preservation and stimulation of curiosity is that all-pervasive factor of contemporary life - marketing,” wrote Australian arts advocate Robyn Archer almost 20 years ago. Add to that the blunting effect of criticism bleeding into advertorial, the way 100-point scores stand in for thoughts, the pedestalling of empty vinfluencing vessels, boomer voices croaking out the same stale fare while desperately clinging to the last vestiges of column inches, and LinkedIn oracles pronouncing ad nauseum on the industry’s travails while assiduously avoiding coming up with a single illuminating idea. So yeah, wine writing needs an audience, and the only way it will win one is if more good stuff gets written with a broad, diverse, intelligent audience in mind - and if the ecosystem bolsters itself by amplifying compelling voices and meaningful material. And then, of course, walking the walk “IRL” by making interactions as enjoyable, surprising and delightful as we think our subject is. There are, after all, lots of people out there in the analogue world eating, drinking, tasting, learning, talking, seeking...
Definitely, Ed. I'm not 100% what this writing is going to look like, though I have ideas that I'm trying and will soon try, and I think we're in a moment where it's thhe trying that's most important. With as little dogma as possible, find out what sparks interest and most importantly, engagement from new drinkers.
Especially in America, our modern wine culture, post-prohibition, is relatively new, to where the initial thrill and romance has finally calcified into mostly insiders talking to each other, which to be fair is what all industries eventually settle into, should they knock-on-wood live long enough to. Information flow and accessibility has also changed radically in the past two decades, to where anything meant to be informational or educational needs to take that into consideration and shift what we're saying and consider why it's important as a piece of writing. I love that books can still give us a window into the thinking at a specific moment in time, but books are far too slow, and only some will still be meaningful to a globally connected world where information is exchanged and knowledge shifts on a nearly daily basis.
In any event, I'll be writing more in depth about this soon, and one major "eureka" thought I've had recently that I'm going to try to make happen with my own writing (and yes, a soon-to-debiut Tiktok channel, too, because that's part of the information ecosystem now.) Cheers to all of us trying in these "trying" times!
Good luck with it; I look forward to seeing what you come up with. And the problem to solve is reach as much as (more than?) content. There are lots of intelligent people drinking wine out there, but many are either turned off by shallow, self-indulgent Insta-vacuity, prehistoric mansplainers and the digital rain of roboscores, or else never tuned in in the first place. The challenge is to get them to tune (back) in and make them glad they did. Funny thing is, the wine industry has a huge vested interest in expanding the invested readership and yet - at least where I’m sitting in Australia - continues to act as a mega-donor to the turn-off brigade.
It seems as if this short attention span permeates the industry as a whole. Demand for high quality wine remains with the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. While the natural wine movement falls squarely on the Gen Z and Millennial's who seem more intrigued by cartoon labels and cloudiness. That's not to say that Natural wine cant be high quality, I just haven't found one yet.
I am over 40 and read 150+ books a year. Reading is one of my favorite things to do each day. I can’t imagine a life where that wasn’t at the center. I don’t care about any of my possessions as much as I care about my books.
My most recent favorite wine reads:
In The Vine Country by Edith Sommerville + Martin Ross
On Bordeaux: Tales of the Unexpected from the World's Greatest Wine Region
Pretty sure some of our greatest winemakers have been highly influenced by great wine writing so there is also that. What a great piece, Tom. Thank you. I'm off to read your recommendation with gratitude.
Wine and War is a great read. I just received a copy of the Bern's Steak House Wine List, 1984 edition. It has some incredible insights into the early days of modern New World wine. God Forsaken Grapes by Jason Williams is another interesting read.
One of my favorite and most literate wine writers, though he is VERY old school--Waugh on Wine by Auberon Waugh (1987). For a more contemporary stylist, Jay McInerney's A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006).
I remember being kinda shocked when McInerney got into the wine writing game. I have his book, but before that, I believe he was writing for Vogue. I agree that he is an outstanding stylist.
I think it’s something of a myth that ‘society’ was deeply literate in any meaningful way, ever. The 19th century elites were literate but people who didn’t own land or penises couldn’t vote, most people could barely read or write in any way we’d consider literate for the purposes of this discussion, and so their literacy or lack of it was something of a moot point. ‘Democracy’ was built on literate elites, not popular literacy. Literate people hugely overestimate the importance of literacy much as wine people hugely overestimate the significance of wine.
Some fine wine books (which many readers are likely to have read!): "The Story of Wine" by Hugh Johnson; "Cork Dork" by Bianca Bosker; "Inventing Wine" by Paul Lukacs; "Judgment of Paris" by George Taber; and "American Vintage" by Paul Lukacs.
While short attention spans / easy distractions are true in general for the modern era, there's still a fair bit of hope. As someone with one foot in WineStack and one foot in FilmStack, it's been fascinating seeing the sheer explosion of creativity and output from the Film side. The posts are LONG, and in-depth to the point where even I'm sometimes incredulous that anyone could possibly be reading them and then the comment sections are straight-up hopping with activity.
Part of it is the excitement of the new: FilmStack is hardcore about reimagaining what film writing and filmmaking can and should be. Critics are working hard to reframe film criticism away from personal opinion to deeper engagement with the material - it isn't about whether you like something or not, but what the work is doing and offering, and how any viewer might engage with it. Filmmaking is even more of a hot topic as we're eagerly banding togethee to find ways to craft new production and distribution environments that no longer depend on the traditional systems Because the traditional systems simply aren't working for actual humans any more.
I don't quite have the words for this yet, but thinking out loud and in real time: Wine writing may need a similar overhaul / reimagining. Not necessarily just in terms of how to reach younger / new readers, but also what is this writing meant to do in the first place? What are we chronicling and why? For whom? The industry is certainly going through a rough patch just like film is, so what is wine writing doing in order to combat this and offer hope, new energy, and excitment around wine? I think most wine writers mean to accomplish all of the above, but most wine writing today looks a lot like wine writing from 20 years ago, and that's unlikely to be a good thing. The solution isn't just jumping to Tiktok and YouTube (though that's likely part of it) but it's also about reimagining / reconsidering what the public needs from us, and/or can get exicited by WITH us. We have to figure out what the difference is between talking to each other and talking to them. Because there's always a difference.
“Wine writing may need a similar overhaul / reimagining (in terms of) what is this writing meant to do in the first place? What are we chronicling and why? For whom?” I agree with your comment wholeheartedly, this observation in particular. Tom’s article is excellent, but I think the smartphone’s impact has been exacerbated by the weakened ecosystem in which it’s wreaked such havoc. Over that 20-year period, the public hasn’t been conditioned to nourish itself on sound, deep, original, touching contemplation about wine. “One of the most powerful, and perhaps accidental, foes of the preservation and stimulation of curiosity is that all-pervasive factor of contemporary life - marketing,” wrote Australian arts advocate Robyn Archer almost 20 years ago. Add to that the blunting effect of criticism bleeding into advertorial, the way 100-point scores stand in for thoughts, the pedestalling of empty vinfluencing vessels, boomer voices croaking out the same stale fare while desperately clinging to the last vestiges of column inches, and LinkedIn oracles pronouncing ad nauseum on the industry’s travails while assiduously avoiding coming up with a single illuminating idea. So yeah, wine writing needs an audience, and the only way it will win one is if more good stuff gets written with a broad, diverse, intelligent audience in mind - and if the ecosystem bolsters itself by amplifying compelling voices and meaningful material. And then, of course, walking the walk “IRL” by making interactions as enjoyable, surprising and delightful as we think our subject is. There are, after all, lots of people out there in the analogue world eating, drinking, tasting, learning, talking, seeking...
Definitely, Ed. I'm not 100% what this writing is going to look like, though I have ideas that I'm trying and will soon try, and I think we're in a moment where it's thhe trying that's most important. With as little dogma as possible, find out what sparks interest and most importantly, engagement from new drinkers.
Especially in America, our modern wine culture, post-prohibition, is relatively new, to where the initial thrill and romance has finally calcified into mostly insiders talking to each other, which to be fair is what all industries eventually settle into, should they knock-on-wood live long enough to. Information flow and accessibility has also changed radically in the past two decades, to where anything meant to be informational or educational needs to take that into consideration and shift what we're saying and consider why it's important as a piece of writing. I love that books can still give us a window into the thinking at a specific moment in time, but books are far too slow, and only some will still be meaningful to a globally connected world where information is exchanged and knowledge shifts on a nearly daily basis.
In any event, I'll be writing more in depth about this soon, and one major "eureka" thought I've had recently that I'm going to try to make happen with my own writing (and yes, a soon-to-debiut Tiktok channel, too, because that's part of the information ecosystem now.) Cheers to all of us trying in these "trying" times!
Good luck with it; I look forward to seeing what you come up with. And the problem to solve is reach as much as (more than?) content. There are lots of intelligent people drinking wine out there, but many are either turned off by shallow, self-indulgent Insta-vacuity, prehistoric mansplainers and the digital rain of roboscores, or else never tuned in in the first place. The challenge is to get them to tune (back) in and make them glad they did. Funny thing is, the wine industry has a huge vested interest in expanding the invested readership and yet - at least where I’m sitting in Australia - continues to act as a mega-donor to the turn-off brigade.
I will participate in any "sinister act" that involves off-screen reading!
My non-traditional wine writing suggestions: Flowers of Evil, by Baudelaire
And The Essential Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) begins with a series of poems called "On The Tavern."
The Essential Rumi is a must- I gift this book to all my friends!
Sad but true article. Thank you for sharing.
Tom,
It seems as if this short attention span permeates the industry as a whole. Demand for high quality wine remains with the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. While the natural wine movement falls squarely on the Gen Z and Millennial's who seem more intrigued by cartoon labels and cloudiness. That's not to say that Natural wine cant be high quality, I just haven't found one yet.
I am over 40 and read 150+ books a year. Reading is one of my favorite things to do each day. I can’t imagine a life where that wasn’t at the center. I don’t care about any of my possessions as much as I care about my books.
My most recent favorite wine reads:
In The Vine Country by Edith Sommerville + Martin Ross
On Bordeaux: Tales of the Unexpected from the World's Greatest Wine Region
The 100 Burgundy by Jeannie Cho Lee
Pretty sure some of our greatest winemakers have been highly influenced by great wine writing so there is also that. What a great piece, Tom. Thank you. I'm off to read your recommendation with gratitude.
Wine and War is a great read. I just received a copy of the Bern's Steak House Wine List, 1984 edition. It has some incredible insights into the early days of modern New World wine. God Forsaken Grapes by Jason Williams is another interesting read.
One of my favorite and most literate wine writers, though he is VERY old school--Waugh on Wine by Auberon Waugh (1987). For a more contemporary stylist, Jay McInerney's A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006).
I remember being kinda shocked when McInerney got into the wine writing game. I have his book, but before that, I believe he was writing for Vogue. I agree that he is an outstanding stylist.
I think it’s something of a myth that ‘society’ was deeply literate in any meaningful way, ever. The 19th century elites were literate but people who didn’t own land or penises couldn’t vote, most people could barely read or write in any way we’d consider literate for the purposes of this discussion, and so their literacy or lack of it was something of a moot point. ‘Democracy’ was built on literate elites, not popular literacy. Literate people hugely overestimate the importance of literacy much as wine people hugely overestimate the significance of wine.
Neuroenology by Gordan Shepard really deepened my perspective on the juice.
Also, the vast, eccentric, magnificent, and mysterious compilation that is the Sean Thackery Wine Library.
http://www.wine-maker.net/LibraryIntroPage.html
Great article . Very thought provoking and a bit scary tbh