No specific question here, just musings that might stimulate interesting discussion. Or might go nowhere…
I only have a few years of taking wine seriously under my belt, so I may be wrong here, but it seems that there is a growing trend in the general world of wine towards the Burgundian model of bottling wines of finer and finer granularity. There are countless small wineries that offer a dizzying array of single vineyard bottlings, portions of single vineyards, even bottlings of a few vine rows. And I think this is happening in lots of places. California for sure. Champagne as well; rather than the traditional model of blends across region and vintages to create a house style, we are seeing increasing numbers of single vineyard, vintage dated wines. Sure, there are still plenty of regional wines on offer all over the world, but the general trend among high-end wine seems to be towards the increasingly specific. Am I right in this perception?
If this is indeed true, I am left wondering: Who does this benefit on the consumer side? For the wine professional, someone who strives to understand the minutest intricacies of a region, then this sort of winemaking approach is certainly beneficial. How better to learn the nuances of terroir than tasting wines vinified from individual vineyards, or blocks within vineyards? But what about the amateur wine enthusiast, among which I count myself? I love wine, and I’m very curious about it. But I open between 2 and 4 bottles a week on average. I want something to enjoy with dinner, maybe discuss with a few friends, think about for a while, write up a clever tasting note. My goals are different than someone in the industry.
I’m reminded of the recent thread on the best 1er crus of Beaune. There were lots of interesting opinions offered. And I loved reading them. But given my personal consumption habits, I’m likely to drink one, maybe two, bottles of Beane 1er cru in a year. Sure, the best way to truly understand the terroir of Beaune is to try wines from many crus made by many producers. But I’m not necessarily looking to “truly understand” Beaune; I’m looking for a nice bottle of wine to have with dinner! I don’t have the time/money/opportunity to go through and compare a dozen bottles and I’m guessing most wine drinkers don’t either. Maybe for someone like me, a Louis Jadot Celebration bottle that blends a bunch of 1er crus together is the way to go. The individuality of each vineyard will be lost, but if I’m only drinking one bottle of Beaune 1er cru, there’s no point of comparison anyway. Individuality can only be appreciated in context of other bottlings.
It’s also interesting to note that there are some well-respected stalwarts who still insist, despite trends to the contrary, that blends represent the best expressions of a region. Bartolo Mascarello and Jean Louis Chave come to mind. Bordeaux also, as a region, seems to be resisting this trend.
For the record, I don’t think bottling wines of super specificity is objectively good or objectively bad. Honestly, on the whole, it’s probably for the better. But it does seem to be an approach more suited towards the professional as opposed to the layperson who simply has an interest and is looking for enjoyment. Please tell me if I’m way off base here. Or maybe you agree. I’m open to the possibility that this whole post is an example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. And thank you to anyone who read this far (probably very few).