Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto

March 28 2006

Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice—Cluetrain Ma

A New Lingua Franca
Part 4 of 4

I could have also called this last post "The Age of Reason."

When talking about the Cluetrain and humans talking to humans in a normal voice--there’s a practicality that is arising that is manifesting itself as a new reason for a "new" wine language. I pin this on, generationally, a new audience coming to terms with the enjoyment of wine.

Atlas Shrugged might be the book most referenced in popular culture that nobody has read. Newspaper flaks say that the normal newspaper is written to be understood by a 4th grader. The New York Times is written to understood by an 8th grader.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is written to be understood by 3rd year philosophy majors.

Wine reviews are written to be understood by oblique men with a short finish in their 50’s.

At its core, according to Wikipedia, Atlas Shrugged is:

Independent, rational thought is the motor that powers the world. In the book, "men of the mind" go on strike,allowing the collapse of what only they hold together — a peacefulcohesiveness Rand claims that humans, particularly those whoseproductive work comes from mental effort, may create wherever forcefulhuman interference is absent. Given no alternative, they removethemselves from the "looters." The title is an analogy: the rationalmen, like the Greek god Atlas, hold the world on their shoulders; in the form of a strike, they have chosen to ‘shrug.’ The book is rooted in Objectivism, the philosophical system founded by Rand.

But, in practical terms, it can be argued that "Men of Mind"--wine consumers--are rising up from the tyranny of forceful human interference. But, instead of, perhaps, removing themselves from the interference, they are creating a new language that fits their rational mind.

That language is the new lingua franca. The movement was started by Joshua Wesson at his Best Cellars stores on the east coast.

The founders of Best Cellars have spent a total of 25 yearsworking in the wine business. We’ve written books and articles on wine andfood, won awards, spoken to tens of thousands of wine lovers at events aroundthe world, and wedged our noses into countless glasses of fermented grapejuice.

The idea for Best Cellars, however, didn’t come from us.

After years of conversations with wine lovers, we came to recognize that manypeople we met who liked drinking wine were put off by the "world ofwine;" its mysteries, rituals and often steep tariffs.

Everywhere we went, people asked us the same questions. How could they find outwhat a wine tastes like before buying? What could they do to better make senseof the dizzying number of countries, regions, grapes and labels? And mostimportantly, where could they shop for wine in an atmosphere that allowed themto feel comfortable making a purchase?

That’s why we say the idea for Best Cellars didn’t come from us.

It came from you.

Best Cellars has been around and this model has started to widely penetrate the consumer-end of the wine space, yet it hasn’t moved from the winemaker’s out to consumers. This intermediation is occuring based on need from retail.

This movement has really come to a head with the very, very good book Wine Styles: Using Your Senses to Explore and Enjoy Wine

WINE STYLE offers a new way of dealing with wine. Itdivides the white wines of the world into four taste categories and the redwines of the world into another four. What could be more important about a winethan how it tastes?

WINE STYLE helps you discover which taste category, or style, of winesuits you best, and enables you to ask for that style of wine when you buy winein a shop or a restaurant. It also helps you become a better wine taster. Itwill help bring you more enjoyment from every bottle! This book takes theemphasis away from the traditional wine lingo of grapes and regions, and placesit right where it belongs—on you and your taste. May it empower you to find alifetime of pleasure in wine!

What’s happening, really, is that people are dissatisfied with the way they are being spoken to. There’s a disconnect. In corporate speak--we are not in alignment on the issue. In corporate jargon, we are not singing from the same hymnal.

But, the difference from the corporate world and the consumer world is the people can rise up and create change--perhaps not as seismic or as quickly as can occur in other industries, but its happening nonetheless. People seek to understand. And, when they don’t they either disengage interest, or they ratchet up the change in order to have the situation fit their needs.

This human looking for human voice is occuring around us right now. We won’t need revisionist history in 10 years to account for the subtle changes that occurred around us with this new lingua franca. Atlas is Shrugging. It will be self-evident.

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