Who taught us to expect so little from wine?

I got to thinking today about how American men (sorry, but it’s true) have worked so hard to take the fun and sensuality out of wine, the universe’s greatest food, the only food that can taste like foods and other stuff that’s not even in the wine (berries, leather, dirt, petrol, smoke, kiwi, cat’s pee, peaches, walnuts).

Wine is magical to me. It’s sort of like Biblical manna, which we are told tasted like the eaters’ favorite foods.

Wine can be a liquid Rorschach (how do you spell that anyway?) – telling more about the drinker than the wine’s chemical make-up.

So then, what mind drinks wine and sees a number, like we’re rating dives or iceskating?

What mind sees the most spiritual food in the universe (we should all hope to be personally transformed into something fine the way grapes get transformed into wine after all!) and says….oohhh that’s like a 92.3!

I’m not naive enough to think we’re close to tossing out wine scores and competitions.

But let’s see if we might PLEASE make wine more accessible to all of us.

Take off your shoes, put on your jeans, curl up with someone you like and drink wine together staring at each others eyes.

Or gather a bunch of friends you don’t know well yet, pour some wine you’ve never had before and WATCH what happens.

Wine is a social lubricant.

Wine brings people together across cultures and experiences. It loosens up our boundaries a bit so we can let the OTHER in.

Food can do this too sometimes, but not like wine.

We could learn a lot from the food writers, by the way. Read them – they talk about food like people talk about sex, it’s sensual and real and you can tell they love what they write about.

A lot of wine critics on the other hand are “clinical” in their wine descriptions….”The patient presented hot with mixed berries on her nose, some funky stuff in the mid-palate and a long structured finish that went on ad nauseam. The tannins were tight so we immediately ordered a massive aeration. After examination, no identifiable terroir could be discerned.”

Who talks like this?

Here’s what I care about when it comes to wine. TELL ME what I am missing, PLEASE!

1) I want to know about the people and the story behind the bottle of wine. A bottle of boutique wine is SOMEONE’S DREAM come true in a bottle. Handle it with respect. Be curious about the maker.

2) I like my wines to smell and taste SURPRISING. I like a wine that tastes like….itself. Status Quo is BORING. I like to meet unique people and likewise I like to taste unique wines from everywhere.

3) Finally, as above, what’s most important with wine is what happens inside of and BETWEEN PEOPLE when they drink – after the bottle gets opened. That’s where the action is. When good wine goes in, a person’s spirit is more likely to come out. Drink wine with food and friends.

We should expect all these things from the wine we drink.

I’ve been teasing that our new Mission is to Bring Sexy Back to the Wine Industry (hell, it was never there) through wine from Israel, the birthplace of wine. By “sexy” I mean fun, friendliness, passion, curiosity, playfulness, a seriousness that’s not overly so.

Come to one of our wine house parties and you’ll leave knowing exactly what I’m talking about.

I hope to see you soon.

You can always reach me personally richard@israeliwinedirect.com