abreaks wrote:Lyle,
A couple of points... First, I generally agree with the premise of your posting. I can't tell you how tired I get of the same stupid little extended pinky gestures and nasally French "hunh-hunh-hunh"s every time I reveal a serious interest in wine. On top of that, I often find myself making a concerted effort to be actively un-snobbish, lest I fuel the stereotype.
I think that another factor that contributes to this phenomenon is the fascinating love/hate relationship that we have historically had with the French. While high-quality wine is obviously made in a number of countries, the most direct association in the mind of the average American is with France. On the one hand, we admire the French for many of their contributions to global cultural patrimony and seem to, on some level, long for a lifestyle that's closer to our stylized impression of theirs. On the other hand, we accuse them of rampant smugness, and who the hell are they to think they're better than us, goddammit. No surprise, then, that when we are at first intimidated by the vastness of all that is wine, many of us react by feigning indifference (why should I care about some stupid, overblown Frenchie thing?). Then, once we know just enough to be dangerous, we've cracked the nut completely (well, shoot, this ain't so hard!).
More than anything else, though, I would argue it's mostly a function of time. In Spain, France, Italy, and elsewhere, wine has been central to the culture of the table for centuries and has been present as those cultures have evolved to their present state. The same isn't true for us, obviously, but I would bet that over time things will eventually calm down and we'll arrive at a more... mature approach to wine.
Finally, I'm not quite sure what Barnaby had in mind, but in the interest of spirited discussion I have to say that there is a touch of inconsistency between this posting and the fact that your previous one was an attempt to list the 10 best producers in the world. I understand where you were coming from and maybe my gripe is purely semantic, but to the extent that we bristle at the oversimplification engendered by the 100-point scale, shouldn't a similar reaction be expected to a "10 best" list?
Great point on the love/hate and I'll add jealousy thing to Franco/American relations.
It is a function of time as well as seemingly unrelated events that lead to a paradigm of a "wine culture."
How do we know with time a series of events will transpire that lead us into a wine culture like France, Germany etc? How do we know if we will ever get a "mature" wine culture or approach to wine?