Awsome Winemaker or War Criminal, You Decide!

[RAD]

Glad we're all having fun; I think this will be my final salvo in this vein--

For what it's worth, let me reiterate my original issue:

>>is the preservation of indigenous varieties mutually exclusive from experimenting with new ones?<<

I think not. As I stated in my first post, Italian producers can cater to an "international" or non-indigenous style while simultaneously producing wines representative of their own geographic DOCG classifications.

Roberto said:

>>it's the difference betwixt superficiallity and real substance. Would you argue with the fact that, even though Brittany Spears sells more records, Aretha Franklin or Chrissie Hynde have a lot more to say AND say it better?<<

Of course I wouldn't argue with that; I'll simply say again that superficiality and real substance aren't mutually exclusive. As I said before, change is the only constant. To continue with Roberto's music metaphor, this week it's teenage boy bands offering homogenous, watered-down versions of the barbershop quartet 80 years ago; last week it was Bed-Stuy rappers maligning real-deal, old-school R&B; before that it was Scott Joplin using all 88 keys to bring dishonor to the piano tradition of Chopin, Beethoven, and Mozart before him, and before you knew it, everyone was doing the Jitterbug and classical piano was as far from the popular consciousness as was Vienna by both rail and steamer from a backwash West Village bar.

Change is the only constant, and on top of that, people are fickle. If this cultural enological conspiracy ever does largely succeed in bringing most wine to an over-oaked second-rate Napa shadow of a magnifique premier cru Bordeaux, then that same conspiracy will then spawn a new huckster hell-bent on pumping the Next Big Thing, whatever that wine style may be--and yet another change will take place. And all the while, quality and originality will remain, even if they are temporarily overshadowed by the saccharine-sweet superficiality of the latest fad.

"Cito maturum, cito putridum" ("Quickly ripe, quickly rotten"). [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/tongue.gif[/img]

--RAD

And in the interest of thoroughness:

MrD, sorry if I my misguided latitude placed scuppernongs a few degrees north of where it should have been; I was merely trying to think of a southern state and wine. And on that note, I checked your URL, which suggests that scuppernongs and muscadines are the same thing. In my best winoweenie impersonation, t'ain't so. I don't know about the Latin taxonomy here, but growing up in GA, I ate enough of both each summer to choke a hog. Scuppernongs were always honey-bronze and about the diameter of a quarter, whereas muscadines were always purply-black and nickel-sized. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

Foodie: thanks for the props, and it was great meeting you last night as well (can't wait for that topic/thread to get started; and on that note, when is the first annual Wine Board Conclave, or has that already been started?)

[This message has been edited by RAD (edited 10-04-2000).]