Wine Conversations: How Do We Get More People Interested in Wine? (III)
Building interest through connections, access and transparency baybeeee!
Earlier this week, Dave Baxter of Wine and… dropped the first issue of “Wine Conversations” – a new ongoing collaboration between some of substack’s ~finest~ wine writers, where we’ll be discussing the juiciest topics in the world of wine. Right now, the collective wine world is scratching its tiny little head, trying to figure out why fewer and fewer people are interested in filling their glasses.
That’s why this week, we’re tackling the topic of how to get more people interested in wine.
If you missed it, check out Dave’s Part 1 and Maria Banson of Brunello Bombshell’s Part 2. They covered some great ideas, from making wine education more “hands-on” to ditching the pretentious facade for something more fun. They argued for transparency, inclusivity, and the art of meeting people where they are without drowning them in wine jargon.
We completely agree, making wine more accessible is central to our wholesome little “belief system” here at Tannic Panic HQ, and we love what both Maria and Dave (&Dallas) are doing with their unique and creative approaches to pairing wine with things you don’t consume by mouth. Integrating wine into the things we all enjoy doing is such a cool way to get people more excited about the stuff, and drawing the parallels between the stories in the bottle and stories on screen, or in books, or in any medium really, helps people see wine not just as a drink, but as a gateway to connection, creativity, and culture.
If people haven’t “discovered the joys of wine” on their own, then finding ways to help them relate wine to the things they already love is a tactic we think would work really well. Our sister, Ariel, is a beer lover and she suggested a really cool idea – to bridge the gap between “craft beer” (whatever the that means “these days”) and “fine wine” by analogizing specific styles/varieties of wine to popular beer styles as an entry point into “enjoyable wines” that deliver similar sensory characteristics to the preferred beer. For example: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with its intense aromatics, ample tropical fruit flavors, citrus and floral notes would likely appeal to the “IPA lover.”
Now something that Dave mentioned in his post on the topic was how expensive good wine is, which of course is true for many bottles, but not a universal truth – THE VALUE IS OUT THERE! But there’s a problem – cheap swill dominates the supermarket shelves, and if you don’t know where to look, you could easily become convinced that your grade D recipe winemaking plonk is actually representative of wine as a whole.
What we try (and hopefully occasionally succeed) to do with our blog is offer wine education in a fun and engaging style that you don’t need to be a wine expert to use or enjoy. We don’t always review bottles that are in budget for the typical non-serious wine drinker, but we do our best to incorporate bargain bottles and in-store tips for searching that people can use to navigate the wine section independently. What’s essential is a reliable source of information on how to pick out great bottles at any budget. Part of that is the education piece as we just mentioned, which can come from writers and enthusiasts through publications and word of mouth. The other part is on the producers and regulators.
Per another one of Dave’s points, wine labels are confusing and hard to understand if you aren’t experienced at reading them. And many mass market wines have ingredient lists so long they wouldn’t fit on a standard label — but luckily for them (and unluckily for the consumer) they don’t have any obligation to disclose what goes in. A handful of producers do label their ingredients - shouts to Ridge - but most don’t for several reasons. One, which we just mentioned, is a lot of producers don’t want you to know what they’ve added (anyone tried Meiomi lately?) and the other is that getting ingredients certified is a regulated process that costs money, and a lot of smaller producers simply can’t afford to do it. If we can change the culture and regulations around that (or subsidize the ingredient verification process), it could transform the shopping experience and pressure producers to steer away from low quality recipe winemaking which would in turn make finding good value wines easier.
The last idea we’ll throw out before leaving some for the rest of the talented writers in the queue comes from one of our favorite wineries in Texas: Hye Meadow. Each year, they have a community blending event (and competition) where people come into the winery and take “raw” ingredients (i.e. single varietal base wines) and create their own blends. Then, a blind tasting takes place, and the wine that wins actually becomes an officially bottled blend for that year, with the people who created the blend getting their name(s) printed on the label. You learn about it and you have fun and you can feel a real sense of pride if you win the dang thing and maybe even discover a new love of more aspects of the process along the way.
All around good stuff.
We’re looking forward to hearing what the next writer in line has up her sleeve – keep your eyes out for Part 4 from Kate Reuschel of Survives on Wine!
Until next time, HAPPY DRINKING PEOPLE.
Cheers!
Isaac & Zach
I'm intrigued by the comparisons between beer and wine... As someone who knows nothing about beer, I think I could use this the other way around: "you like a buttery Chardonnay? You might like this blonde beer!" Etc 😂
The problem is young people not into wine are not really drinking craft beers either, at least not in my circle. They are drinking dark spirits and cola, that taste nothing like wine. There is no easy crossover.