Our country has been trading worthless paper against worthless paper ever since the Ronald Reagan administration. The popular anticipation was that everyone could be rich, everyone could buy a home, everyone could send their kids to insanely expensive colleges if you just had the right piece of paper acquired from the right consultant. All this has collapsed into one horrible mess that threatens great human suffering throughout the world.
It was pure and simple greed which drove this country to tank out. Around this time, the wine industry became converted into yet another commodity based on points, scores and commodity exchange and speculation.
To look around the wine landscape is profoundly depressing -- you see people continuing to sell highly scored labels for millions of dollars. Labels that have no land, no value, no meaning. People who come out of nowhere to make wine that comes out of no place and tastes like nothing continue to ride a trend of money making with the same old worn out points on paper certifying their bottles can be taken directly to the bank.
This is not going to last. At Louis/Dressner, at Kermit Lynch, at Peter Weygandt, at Neal Rosenthal, at Jenny & François we offer wines that have never heard of Bernie Madoff. Some of the best regional importer/distributors (Polaner, Bowler, Chadderdon, Beaune Imports, Triage, Farm Wine Imports, to name a few) also specialize in real/natural wines that express history, pride, love, work and a future based on something real. The fruit of the earth.
It is a turning point for the wine trade. Lets bail out of the old style of riding some cynical consumer fad (Where have all the critters gone) based on Parker or some other fad and proudly sell the beauty of that rare intersection of time and place that only the vine can express. Madoff is in jail....let him rot and let us learn the lessons.
Yes, there are only a small amount of wines made this way, but there still remains plenty to sell, drink and enjoy. Lets not confuse all forms of fermented grapes as being in the same family.
It is time to draw some limits!