Lyle Fass – Word on the Street - 7-1-09; Wine Mystification

[passetoutgrains33]

No, i do not, But I am sure that you know someone, a friend perhaps, that would be willing to work with you, to help you out. Not everyone gouges, especially when they see talent - sometimes it is better to be associated with something than to directly/monetarily profit from it.

[Ken Schramm]

"Because of the drinking age, the demonization of alcohol in this country due to Prohibition and organizations such as MADD, and the resultant attitudes we have no wine culture."

Hi Lyle;

Late to the game, but I'd still like to make a contribution.

Agreed, American culture is immature. There is, however, a wine culture here. It is small, and less developed than that in Europe, but it does exist: you, Jon, Joe D., Eric A, Putnam Weekley here in Detroit, so many others. We taste and learn, taste and learn, taste and learn. Yes, most of us are left to do that because our parents did not imbue the knowledge of moderation, the role of wine with food, etc, but that will not keep us from helping our kids learn that, nor should it make us feel bad about our own process of sloughing off the ignorance. Here's to progress.

The role of Parker and WS in that assault on ignorance is not to be dismissed. True, there is oversimplification, but left to our own devices, many would simply choose to stick with beer and never challenge their own knowledge inadequacies. And in as puritanical a society as ours, the thought that you might be fleeced of your hard earned money by hucksters offering $5 wine behind a $50 label is abhorrent to lots of us. So we begin our journey from babe-in-the-woods to aficionado by arming ourselves with what seems like the best information we can assemble. Some of us are fortunate to live around the corner from Chambers St., to stumble onto a Lyle Fass, or to meet a Putnam Weekley or Chris Coad very early in the process. The rest of us are left to try to create some sort of order out of the ocean of wines we face. 100 point scoring systems seem like a life rope in stormy seas to these folks. At a bare minimum, I offer my admiration to all who venture away from the Bud Light and dip their toes into that water.

It is all about developing a filter set. Even discarding out of hand the wines of the mega-swill factory producers, there are so many thousands of labels out there that none of us outside of the wine trade has anything close to the amount of time and capital needed to familiarize one's self with even a tiny fraction of what is available. Consequently, the role of critics, sales people and guides becomes paramount. Even though RP and WS may be so ostentatious as to present themselves as end-all vehicles for wine edification, those who truly seek to reach the heights attainable would be well served not to deride them or their followers, but rather should simply view them in the same way great violinists might view their time spent on the Suzuki method - an early, useful, developmental stage. Put another way, all input is good input, and as we become more educated, we need to build filter sets for the filter sets.

I don't put RP in the set of influences I see as dumbing down our culture. WA is a pull medium, and anyone who pulls is not interested in becoming dumber. This is not to say that dumbing down is not happening. Mega business has a huge interest in the undiscerning customer. The analogy with audio can be extended to visual media, as well, where the ability to produce beautiful, thoughtful, high definition material is being countered with unscripted reality programs, compressed into mush, only to be regurgitated onto a 3" screen on a hand held player. 140 character tweets do as much for intelligent thought.

So, Vive la Pull. This very board is a part of the young forest that is our nascent wine culture. When you're trying to grow a forest, available nutrient/bio-mass is way more important than pruning. Let us encourage all outlets for people to educate themselves.