What's So Fine about Fine Wine Anyway?

A timely reprise with prologue.

Dear Readers — This column originally ran in BTYH on July 13, 2010. I reproduce it here because, while some of the issues it mentions no longer produce strident arguments — “natural wine,” here’s looking at you — the basic premise remains cogent: Too much emphasis rests on the production, marketing and sale of high-end, prestigious wines to the neglect of everyday wines that people can enjoy a glass or two of with dinner. That premise itself is now called into question by the increasing anti-alcohol and neo-prohibition movements gaining headway not only in this country but globally, as well as a general turning away from alcoholic beverages by people under 30 years old. Wine is in trouble, and the wine industry in American has traditionally done little to sway the tide of elite standards and the image of the luxurious “wine country lifestyle.” The ship needs to be turned around, though sometimes it seems as if no captain, courageous or otherwise, stands at the helm.