Price or Lifestyle

The other night I was chatting away in front of a bottle of Guy Roulot's Meursault Le Tessons Le Clos de Mon Plaisir 2001with my dear friends Elenora Guerini, currently co-director of Gambero Rosso's Vini d'Italia, and Giueppe Carrus, a key contributor to the wine guide, when we discussed a topic I find particularly interesting. It began when Elenora said ''you have no idea how many wines are sent to us that have not even been bottled yet. Samples of those great reds that were so fashionable a few years back and which producers are now hesitate to bottle because they are unsure over how much they will be able to sell and how long this will take''. According to her, as well as many other experts, this phenomenon reflects a change in the tastes of the public who have had it with those wines that are too 'muscular'.

I believe that she is in part right but did not take into consideration a number of factors. The first regards above all those who know something about wine, who try new wines because they are curious as well as knowledgeable. Those who are well acquainted with the leading wine producing areas in the world, the main wines produced and who prefer delicacy and balance to boldness and intense extract presence, to put it in a nutshell. They are many people like this in Italy and in those countries that are particularly advanced wine-wise like France, Britain, Germany and, in part, the United States. However, there are many others, even in the above-mentioned countries, for whom wine does not represent a stylistic or knowledgeable choice. For them wine also represents a status symbol, as is sometimes the case in countries like Russia, China, Japan and even the United States. But even in Italy choosing a wine often involves other elements. Riccardo Cotarella, one of the most informed international wine experts, often argues that it is not necessarily that the taste of the public is becoming more 'Burgundy-orientated and he recently told me, statistics in hand, how Falesco, his own winery, has boosted its turnover by 25% and that Tellus, a Syrah made in the central region of Lazio, is becoming a market phenomenon. The reason for this? It is because it costs less than five euros plus tax and because it obviously appeals to a public that does not want to spend too much and wants to drink wine they can trust, one that is soft and enjoyable. They do not want the great wines, the extreme ones, the 'cerebral' ones. They want wines they can drink without thinking about them too much and without spending a fortune. The market for such wines exists throughout the world and is much bigger than one would think. In regard to the problem facing the 'muscular' wines, it is probably in part due to changes in lifestyles and fashion trends, but it is also in large part due to their prices which today are excessively high. They no longer appeal to that market sector which up until a few years ago could spend 50 or 60 euros a bottle and who today cannot or do not want to spend so much. Instead of buying a Giacosa Barbaresco they are buying a Rivetti. They are buying a bottle of Tellus, which costs eight euros a bottle in the shop.