I am going to give my
opinion, from a standpoint a little removed from the culture of wine as I am
from Madrid which is not a city with a history of wine like La Rioja where the
whole environment, from the gastronomy to the very tiles of the streets remind
you of this region’s special tie to wine.
I think there are three
factors behind the reason why young people in Madrid often think “wine is for
old people”:
1. Communication: The
logos, the bottles and their labels, the colours used, the language used… everything
conveys a sense of age, of something ornate, that has difficulty reaching an
audience if they don’t not know if the wine should have been X months in a
barrel and who knows how many in a bottle to allow the wine to taste fruity or
to have a woody or smoky flavour because it has aged more or less.
2. When you grow up in a
land of wine it is naturally easier to acquire knowledge about the development
and enjoyment of a good wine. Maybe,
like me, when you are at home you have a glass of wine at lunch or dinner; as
it is traditionally said to be good for your health. As my father says “Wine is art”. But it often
isn’t like this and when you start to drink beer, vodka or whiskey for the
first time (and this is related to the first factor), what is communicated by
these drinks? What is transmitted in their ads? Youth, partying, fun and
modernity.
3. Knowledge: why is it
that it seems that in order to appreciate wine -or to have an opinion as basic as
‘whether I like it or not’- we have to have an intimate knowledge on the
subject? I do not understand beer or vodka or how they are prepared and know if
I like the taste or not. The other day, I said I preferred a crianza to a gran
reserva and the accusing looks I got almost killed me, as yes, I prefer fruity
flavours to a smoky or woody taste.
And to explain all this with some pictures, what do the following images transmit to you?:
