Why Are Some Wine People So Serious? (A Commentary)

We have come across a few folks (and we emphasize 'few') who are involved in the wine industry both from the retail and production sides who are just so darn serious when it comes to their business.  We guess the term 'serious' is a bit misleading.  Everyone should be 'serious' about their business and work, so we guess we would truly define serious as caring about what you do and not treating it as clown show.  So, more exactly we are talking about those in the industry who have no (or lost their) appreciation for the fact that they are NOT producing or selling toxic chemicals or weapons of mass destruction, they are involved in the wine business.  Which is an industry that is inherently about making people happy and enhancing the enjoyment of life.

So, why so glum chum?

Now everyone surely has their moments where talking about how this white blend is made from such and such grapes and goes great with seafood is painful.  You can only say that so many times before there becomes a touch routine or even forced.  But, at least you are not describing about how much collateral damage one of your grenades can do.  So, our advice to those public facing folks in the wine business who might not jump out of bed each morning with renewed vigor is to.....Lighten Up.  You need to be ambassadors for these products (whether they are your own or someone else's).  Customers can be a pain in the a$$....WE can be a pain in the a$$, with our questions and whatnot.  But, again if you love the product then everything else is easy.  'Yes that California Chardonnay is delicious and goes great with fish....you should try it with grilled swordfish.'

Beyond your attitude, if there is even a hint of a Snooty tone in your voice, you are abandoning soooo many wine fans and advocates it is certainly not worth any holier-than-thou, down-the-nose look.  The guy in the jeans and T-shirt may just own an internet start-up that got a second round of venture capital financing and is actually going to buy a case of First Growth Bordeaux....so help him do that.

This little post could be considered more about purpose and passion.  If you are working in the wine business and have no passion for it, then in short.....get out.  Get out now.  There is no room for someone who is phoning it in because this is a product that cries out for passion.  Have more of an interest in candy bars or modern art?  Go work for Nestle or an art gallery.  Find your customers to be beneath you because they can't knowingly smile at the challenges of prematurely stopping malolactic fermentation?  Then stop talking to customers cuz you're a douche...and we mean that in the nicest way possible.

Sort of.

Comments?  Are we full of it?  Tell us.

Keep on tasting!

Chris & Shannon