The wine world is noisy, that’s for sure. Just take a moment and look at all the blogs and websites out there dedicated to the subject of wine. There are a plethora of wine periodicals to choose from, and most of the major newspapers from around the world have a wine columnist. Add to all of this, the many books written on the subject. It is, downright deafening.
The range of the noise goes from dull and repetitive to shrill and annoying. You want dull and repetitive, try reading tasting notes and scores for and hour or two, let alone writing them out. It can be especially painful if the person writing the tasting notes has no creativity or originality. You want shrill and annoying, try reading an article on bio-dynamic grape growing practices from someone who believes it is the devils work if you make a wine in any other way then bio-dynamically. There are articles on demystifying wine, mystifying wine, taking the snob out of wine, wine 101, the romance of wine. There are articles on the value of screw-caps, corks, glass stoppers or synthetic closures. It gets really noisy when terroir is discussed or the value of the 100 point scoring system for wine. The wine preferences and habits of the millennial can create such cacophony of ear-splitting noise, one can only wonder if any of it makes sense.
I promise you, that in amongst all this noise, there is a melody that will be found. The key is finding the chord that sounds best to you and stick with that. Can you remember the days when you were a kid listening to your favorite tunes, and your parents started yelling at you to turn down that noise? Noise? How could they call it noise? You see, to them it wasn’t melodic or in the chord that was pleasing to their ears. To you it was perfect. The noise of the wine world is exactly the same.
There are the hard rockers of wine (Tom Wark), the rappers of wine (Joe Roberts) and the pop star writers (Dr. Vino). There is a genre of musicality in wine for all listeners, you just have to flip through the wine world I-tune store and find the ones you want to down-load and listen to. If you’re not into the controversial aspects of wine, avoid those who like to stir it up. If you are not into extensive tasting notes, do not down-load that site. If you are into story-telling, find the best story-teller. If you want to find a good wine without blowing your budget, find the writer (blogger) who sings that tune. I think you get the picture. Find the person or persons who appeal to your ear and listen to them, filtering out the rest of the noise.
In time, you may find that your wine interests have changed, therefore it is time to change your channel. The beauty of it is, there are many channels and genre to choose from. Yes, it is a noisy wine world, but thankfully there is a something to tune into for everyone. Just find your tune, and realize that others dance to a different one.
Cheers! Stan The Wine Man aka The Blue Collar Wine Guy
