Introduction to James Silver’s Book
My friend and former colleague, James Silver, has written a book on the current state of the wine business, a subject that is keeping most of us in the biz anxiously unable to sleep, think straight, make coherent plans for the future, or in sum, enjoy the gracious living lifestyle that we once came to expect from this putatively gentle and refined industry. What is most vexing is that we seem to have encountered the perfect vinous storm, a confluence of so many factors - changing demographics (the sunsetting of the Boomer cohort), the fashionability and availability of cannabis, the burgeoning popularity of alternative beverages (pre-packaged mixed drinks, low and non-alcoholic alternatives), the sudden and unexpected advent of hipster “natural” wines,[1] the recent flurry of concerns about the health hazards of alcohol consumption, the accelerating wine pricing relative to other alcoholic beverages, and even the now perceived “inconvenience” of having to deploy a specialized tool, that is to say, a corkscrew, to achieve accessibility to one’s bibulous pleasure. Or is it just another manifestation of End Stage Capitalism?[2] Many of these contributing factors now appear to have become arguably structural, rendering the tools that we imagined we had at our disposal to revive sales and engender brand loyalty, essentially useless. [3] We are piloting planes that no longer have functioning engines, with fuel and altitude gauges that spin senselessly, and ultimately are as helpful as the red Idiot Light that comes on to tell you that you and your vehicle are essentially totally screwed.
We in the wine business are fearful and bereft, desperate for answers; we have become tribespeople wandering through the desert, desperate for some sign from the wine gods, a Cab-burning bush, the ritual sacrifice of our first Beaunes, some indication of a potentially useful, viable way out of here. Should we stop putting sulfites in our wines, learn to love pediococcus, acetobacter, and other creepy-crawlies, and at the same time find some way to publicly proclaim our vinous virtue? Should we, as personally galling as it might be to some of us, consider engaging a pipsqueak social media “influencer” who will find a way to visually and humorously represent the highfalutin’ and rarified notion of calcareous or granitic terroir on TikTok? Should we cynically consider producing wines, sweetened red confections, that we ourselves would never consume? (No! we shouldn’t.)
Wine, especially fine wine, is a great gift that has been given to human civilization and somehow, despite the formidable head-wind it is currently meeting, is a precious thing that we really should try to preserve for generations to come, as challenging a prospect as that might be. JIm has written a guide to the perplexed (and chagrined) wine professional that greatly furthers this important conversation. The coming years will likely not be so heartening to observe. We will see some if not many of our worthy colleagues leave the field maybe a lot sooner than they would have, had they their druthers. Fine wine is a great and valuable and civilizing gift; we all need to dig in and do our best to preserve its viability for future generations when and if they lay down their cellphones long enough to stop and smell the rosés (and muscats and aglianicos.)
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[1]Aka very expensive, high octane kombucha
[2] Once upon a time, everyone in the wine business from grape growers to winemakers to wholesalers, retailers, even restaurateurs with a predilection for fine wine, had modest expectations of financial success, and understood that “growth” in their world was bounded and relatively static. A grower in Burgundy, (rightfully) thrilled with his or her ownership of a grand cru site, did not feel slighted that its 1.6 hectare dimension could not be expanded to 2.6 hectares. We were not in the business to make a fortune; we did what we did because we loved doing it and felt enormously privileged to have found such a satisfying métier. Along the way, someone, I’m not saying precisely who, discovered that one could actually make real money if you could create or tap into an ever expanding customer base, presumably by changing consumer habits and this, I believe, was the tainted apple in the Garden. Coupled with an expanding portfolio of products, line extensions, if you will, all you had to do was persuade essentially puritanical Americans to just loosen up a bit, fire up their outdoor grills, throw a steak on aforesaid grill and wash it down with say, a zin or a cab (or a chard, if that was your preference.) It was as easy as ABC (Anything But Cocktails). (Note: Gen-Zers are often not graced with al fresco dining facilities.)
[3]Brand loyalty? We will now happily settle for brand survival.
