People love to say these days that we have more choice than ever, in what we do and buy. And that may be true in many ways, but looking down the ranks of wine shelves, you would be forgiven for laughing a hollow laugh when faced with the sea of samey-samey Australian reds and industrially-produced Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
By insisting that price is the paramount driving factor in purchasing decisions, we run the risk of condemning ourselves to mediocrity at best, faceless, bland crap at the worst.
Yes, there will of course be people who are more than happy to drink these Coca-Cola wines, but there are also people who own velour sofas, wear grey leather zip-up shoes and aspire to own Rav4s. Some people simply cannot be helped, but that does not mean we all must conform to the lowest common denominator. There are also those who genuinely do not care what is in their glass, so long as it has a bit of sugar, oak (chips) and alcohol. Again, good for them, but that should never mean that the majority of wine on sale should cater to their tastes.
But if that is all that is on sale, how will they ever even have the chance of an epiphany with a sassy little Spanish red, or discover the joys that lurk within Italy's vineyards. To bow to the lowest common denominator and say that that is all people want, is a denial of the problem and missing the opportunity to give people choice and quality across all price points.
By insisting that we must have the ‘best price' (meaning cheapest) of anything going, we have left ourselves at the mercies of the likes of supermarkets, who command the greatest buying power by sheer scale. They ruthlessly exploit this and force suppliers to conform to their target markets and products, quality and variety is lucky to get a look in. The squeezing of independent merchants by the naked price wars between the two major supermarket chains is seemingly regarded as inevitable, and rather incredibly, given the recent news that one of the chains has been able to turf the country's largest company, dairy giant Fonterra off prime shelf space, no one seems to be particularly concerned about the influence they wield over New Zealand's predominately boutique-scaled wine industry.
Of course, it is unfair and naïve to point the finger only at supermarkets, there are a number of other merchants who operate similar policies, without thought to the consequences to the industry and wine quality as a result. The fact remains that we hand the power of choice over to corporations and their marketing poodles, and you can be absolutely certain that they are only concerned with the bottom line and ticking their target performance boxes rather than providing the consumer with real choice and real quality.
What also seems to be ignored is that this intense focus on price above all else means something has got to give from producers' end. If their wine will only be stocked if they sell it at a certain price point which takes into account the retailer's margins and no one else's, then what are they to do? A winery faces relatively fixed costs as far as packaging goes, absolutely fixed costs in terms of taxes and duties so what suffers in the end is quality of the product that goes into the bottle. How can we expect it not to - they still have to run a business - and the actual wine itself that is the easiest area to cut costs - higher yields, less husbandry in the vineyard and winery, poorer quality oak (barrels, what barrels?), etc, etc. Well, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
So what is it that we are getting? A market place dominated by retailers who only care about the bottom line and having X many Chardonnay or Cabernet on the shelves. A system that rewards those who can churn out mass-produced soulless wines for X price point. Consumers who think that all wine should be eternally on special offer and taste exactly the same, no matter where it comes from and what year it is.
It is easy to say that this is an elitist stance, taken by those who can afford to spend more money on wine, and that will always give the luxury of choice, but it is really a chicken and egg situation - the more we allow dross to be churned out with no questions asked and price the only driving factor, the more we are convinced that that is the way it has to be, and the more we accept it as the norm.
The minute you believe that the only thing that can come from the sub-$10 or $15 bottle of wine is faceless and characterless, its only redeeming features sugar and alcohol in grape variety flavours, pepped up with an oak tea bag, you are giving the people who market these wines (or beverages as they are so frequently referred to) license to keep going. Soon, that's what people will expect and be happy to continue with (if it's not too late already). It will increasingly permeate higher price points, until it will get to the point where you have to be able to afford Premier Cru Burgundy et al before you get some distinction and character.
There is also nothing elitist in saying it may simply not be sustainable to produce something that actually resembles wine at say sub-$10. It is instead commonsense. The changing global climate, threats to water access and increasing pressure on the vineyard environment is calling into question the ability of many regions to continue to churn out millions of litres of cheap wine.
This obsession with always being able to have what we want, when we want, and at the cheapest possible price it is a dangerous one for society and is part of what drives many supermarkets and their ilk. Surely to drink less but drink better is not such a bad thing? After all, everything in moderation is the catchphrase for healthy longevity; wine fits this bill perfectly.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Wine is not merely a beverage and it makes my skin crawl when I hear marketing people (and they are usually the culprits) refer to it as that. Wine has centuries, millennia even, of cultural, ritual, environmental and sybaritic history behind it, and is a living breathing entity. As soon as it is the marketing people who are the only face of a wine, you know you're in trouble. Wine is already in grave danger of becoming just another commodity with the increasing globalization and domination of the industry by massive corporations but this takes away all the joy of a drink that can and should be unique to its variety, geography and culture.
If wine lovers do not stand up for what they love, and insist that there is some integrity and character at all price levels, then what hope does anyone have, particularly those on a budget. It is the thin end of the wedge to give in to the idea that anything cheap has to be soulless, faceless bland crap.
Of course, are we merely getting what we deserve? A similar attitude towards what we eat has left us with a legacy of tomatoes with the flavour and texture of old socks, luridly over-processed cheese which has almost no association with what came out of the cow in the first place, flavourless pork, chicken and eggs produced in the most inhumane conditions imaginable...all because the vast majority of us refuse to take anything other than price into account when making a purchase. Never mind the fact that this is helping to make low-wage, barely profitable businesses just fighting to survive the norm for our food and wine producers. China must be rubbing its hands together with glee.
This is not an entreaty to only buy local, and pay through the nose for it, I do not expect you to don a hair shirt every time you head off to buy wine; I am well aware there is a lot of faceless soulless wine at higher price points (shame on them). I am also not so naïve to believe that all people who drink wine have a love and fascination for what is in their glass, and I do not expect them to - but how will we ever swell the ranks of wine lovers if we enable them to imbibe a steady diet of mass-produced rubbish?
There is no easy solution to the problem.
How to convince people that there is more satisfaction and pleasure in seeking quality and interest in all things, not just wine? Perhaps the fact that we are mostly descended from the British, rather than French, Italians or Spaniards that has left us with a legacy of regarding wine as something to get drunk on, rather than savour and appreciate. How do we make good food and wine an integral part of our lives, something to linger over with families and conversation? No easy ask, but there seem to be signs of hope.
All around the country we are seeing resurgence in Farmers' Markets and there are retailers offering quality produce and a commitment to that quality and choice, not necessarily at eye-watering prices. These are who we must support, so that we don't all end up drinking Yellowtail and eating watery tomatoes and pre-grated processed cheese, wondering where it all went wrong.
(EJ)