Prediction: 2011 to Become the “Year of the Wine Consumer”

I love the adage, “If I ask you what time it is don’t tell me how the watch works.” And I confess that I am as guilty as any wine expert for launching into a lesson on history, geology and fermentation sciences when asked the simple question, “What would be a nice wine for my dinner tonight?”

 

This being said I think it is high time that the wine industry and our community of wine experts, educators, consultants and sommeliers take the point of this saying to heart. Some people are really curious and passionate about understanding minute details about wines: where they come from, how they are made, how made them and how to best describe their experience with fantastic descriptive details of flora, fauna, numerical ratings and god only knows what else. This is well and good if the person or people you are dealing with are on the same plane. The problem is that many people simply don’t give a rat’s butt about all of the details and trivia about wine. They just want something that tastes good without all of the hoopla and without the inference that they must become more “educated” before they can enjoy a nice glass of wine. And things have been getting worse as of late.

Over the past few decades the missive for many wine pundits has been to “educate consumers to appreciate better wines.” Behind this noble effort is a misguided premise that “better” wine is dry, intense, high in alcohol and often emitting smells that can be likened to Carmen Miranda’s head gear, cat’s pee (seriously), old socks or wet dogs. The bottom-line for all of this a covert agenda of “let’s get more consumers to spend more money on wines they may not like.” I we turn the tables and have the wine industry become as passionate about understanding and embracing wine consumers as we are about learning and disseminating wine trivia.

My prediction for 2011 is that more and more wine authorities and educators will finally take up the practice of learning to listen to consumers and back off on the inappropriate assumption that all consumers want to be educated about wine. And ditto for the incorrect assumption that all consumers are always searching for new wine experiences. Many are, and the Year of the Wine Consumer is not about stifling wine education or suppressing the desire of many to constantly explore new wines. The Year of the Wine Consumer is more about finding out where a consumer want to go and then getting them to the products that will delight them without the unnecessary baggage of intimidation, arrogance and misassumptions about what they really like and want from a wine.

To make this prediction a reality two things need to happen. First, wine consumers need to have a stronger voice and take on a powerful posture that their personal preferences count. This means to demand from the wine people you encounter that they cater you’re your needs, not the greater glory of Bacchus and the other false gods of wine.

Secondly, the wine community; educators, mavens, sommeliers, and experts, need to learn to listen for what consumers are really asking for. Would you like to be taken on a wild journey or stick to something close to home, warm and comfortable? We would become focused on asking, “What do I need to know about you?” so we can help custom tailor a wine selection that will rock your world. Our mission for the “Year of the Wine Consumer” is to get the attention focused on the consumers’ wants and needs with the option to go for a ride still open and available to anyone who cares.

If you are a wine consumer and like the idea of the wine industry being of better service to you here is how you can help. My partner, Dr. Virginia Utermohlen MD, and I are conducting a survey in conjunction with the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi and we want you to participate. It will probably take about 20 minutes as this is not silly cliché-riddled throwaway project. There is some serious science going on behind the scenes and we are really working hard to get people who are tired of the confusion, overwhelm and lack of personalized service when looking for help with your wine selections. Please take the 20 minutes and forward this piece on to anyone and everyone you know who enjoys wine but is tired of the ordeal and expense of trying to find wines that suit your personal preferences.

Help us make 2011 the Year of the Wine Consumer by going to www.consumerwineawards.com and selecting the link: Take the NEW 2011 Consumer Survey. And then send this along to every wine drinker you know so they can do the same. Let them know that the wine industry is finally ready to listen and that the new wine education mission is to learn how to be more of service and become better listeners.

Celebrate Consumer Diversity for a Healthier, More Diverse Wine Industry

Wine consumers come in all shapes, sizes, gender, adult age and socio-economic groups. Wines come in many colors, flavors, styles and price points. Long term growth, expansion of production in emerging regions, acceptance of overlooked-but-traditional and new wine types and a general better health prognosis for the wine industry will come from celebrating the diversity of wines, wine consumers and the diversity of rating, scoring and communications systems to get the right consumer to the right product.

The way to expand wine sales and promote a greater diversity of wine styles will come from the wine community learning to celebrate the diversity of wine consumer tastes and deepen our understanding of individual consumer preferences. This strategy will allow the peaceful coexistence of different valuation systems that are geared towards, and can be custom fit to, the wants and needs of different groups of consumers.

My friend John Stallcup says that wine style, fashion and quality is largely dictated by the “tyranny of the minority”; a handful of wine critics who favor dry, highly concentrated and intense wines. This has resulted in the homogenization of wine styles around the world and stifled the efforts of vintners who favor delicacy, lesser known grape varieties or produce wine in lesser-known growing regions. Modern communications and technology are having an impact on expanding wine communication. But the frustration of new-age critics, bloggers and wine producers is omnipresent as more pressure is mounted to find alternatives to end the 30-year dominance of the 100 point rating system.

This “tyranny of the minority” results in a hyper-focus on a handful of regions, producers and wine styles. While terrific wines are being produced in every state in the US and several Provinces in Canada there is less attention paid to the passionate efforts of these vintners outside of their state or province of production. Even producers in Europe, where they have been growing and making wine for centuries, are now facing ”identity crises”. As winegrowers in Chianti, Bordeaux and other regions vie to “fight it out for the points” many lament that the wines are losing their personality and character, instead becoming homogenous and indistinguishable “modern” style of wines so fashionable with the majority of wine critics and gatekeepers.

It is important to stress that this is a call to end the DOMINANCE of the 100 point system – not a call to end the 100 point system itself. There is a definable, established and viable market segment of people who clearly favor the types of wines earning high scores in the “more equals better” equation and find the 100 point system works perfectly for their needs. The opportunity is to develop and promote meaningful alternative systems for people who do not enjoy the higher alcohol, high intensity types of wines favored by this method of valuation.

So how can we sell a more diverse spectrum of wines to the largest, most diverse range of consumers? Now is the time to create a new approach to wine marketing and communications. One that does not destroy any of the existing systems yet will usher in a new era of better understanding and personalizing the experience for wine consumers. The consumers are out there, there is plenty of wine to go around and the time is ripe for change.

Help us get wine consumers to take our survey! Wine professionals are welcome to weigh in but we really want to get this out past the gatekeepers and reach every day wine consumers.


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cwal2011
About the Consumer Wine Awards
The Consumer Wine Awards is an international wine competition open to wines grown and produced anywhere in the world and represents a viable alternative for generating meaningful, peer-to-peer wine recommendations. It is entering its’ fourth year and second year employing panels of untrained consumers instead of traditional wine experts. We will begin accepting wines January 1, 2011, to be tasted March 19 and 20, 2011. The submission forms and handbook can be downloaded at www.consumerwineawards.com.

Top Expert Declares Wines Should Be Homogenized, Lifeless Commodities!

If you are reading this I apparently got your attention. The intention of this post is to help people get past the incorrect conclusions drawn by many people about my work.

Seems that if I am to infer the wine industry might be better off learning more about consumers and applying that learning to promoting the expansion of wine consumption that what I REALLY and saying is we need to produce bland, homoginized, cheap wines with no soul or character and sell them to consumers that I think are morons. Here is a lovely example of how the logic seems to go:

I recently posted a comment to a blog on balance that predicatbly inspired lively debate and opposing points of view. I used a Napa Valley Cabernet for an example of a wine people might perceive differentlly from a standpoint of balance, primarily how differently we experience alcohol and tannin. My comment was framed by the Sufi parable about 3 blind men describing how they perceived an elephant and I used generalizations from my research on taste sensitivity to illustrate how physiological sensory variables shape our differing experiences and the descriptions and opinions we form of those experiences. Here is the response it elicited:

Ticked off California wine critic: “I think he makes too much of his pet theories, but then we all do. But when he drags them in to suggest that only people with dull palates could appreciate CA Cabs, then he goes too far.”

Blog author, “I didn't take Tim's comment to be a broadbrush stroke against CA wines.”

Critic, expanding his hostility and errant correlations, “frankly, how can the story be interpreted any other way. Only the third blind blogger, the one with no taste buds (hmmm – I never said that), likes CA wines…And what he sees is that only blind bloggers with no tastebudes like CA wine. That would suggest that 95% of all Californians are borne with fewer taste buds than average (hmmm - I said never said that). Sorry, Joe, but that kind of logic cannot be left unchallenged”

Yowser – that is sure a stretch! He then goes over to attack me on his own blog:
"So, today, over on Joe Roberts’ site, Mr. Hanni, brought his “number of taste buds” theory to bear on why some people never like California wine...To put it another way, apparently 95% of people living in California are born with an insufficient number of taste buds and we just do not know any better...This theory gets what it deserves: F"


Although the  headline for this blog is the farthest thing from my mind, people who are passionate and very expert about wine seem very confronted and afraid that this is what I am proposing - and unwilling to learn more about it. All I can say is get over it. My consumer research and movement is directed to end the ‘tyranny of the minority’, restore the possibility of making wines with MORE character and MORE diversity is being met with great resistance, ignorance and hostility.

All this cynicism, hostility and fear is aimed towards me for looking for NEW solutions to create a stronger market and add more value to the entire wine industry.

Here is my mission: understand, embrace and cultivate ALL wine consumers.

Here is my plan: 

• Re-educate the wine industry versus relying on educating the wine consumers on BS (not that this stops educating consumers – just changes the game in a big way and will require a lot of revision to materials and information)
• Conduct more NEW consumer research to really understand the market – not the wine but also not excluding wine research.
• Disseminate better and more accurate information that encourages people to explore new wines more confidently, confidently share their preference
• Abolish the fear, intimidation and overwhelm we have created, and continue to radiate, because of OUR ignorance. Many people think they are doing this but they are just doing the same-old-stuff in a new way with the same outcome.

And beware! There will be more focus coming your way on sweet wine consumers – AND big red wine consumers and sparkling wine consumers and light white wine consumers and pink wine consumers and fortified wine consumers and people who love terroir and people who love 100 point systems and people who love Italian, French, Australian, South African, New Zealand and South American wines – plus wines from anywhere I may have missed in this incomplete wine.

From the point of fear and cynicism in the wine community here are a few nuggets from the field:

“Aw, jeez, Tim. Now I understand why your posts have had a bit of irritation for me… You view wine as a commodity –“

“you are-in my opinion-an idiot.”

“Seriously, your argument is ridiculous.”

“I read the Hanni piece a bit like Charlie did, as more pathetic than anything else. Hanni should know better.”

“Anybody who says their goal in life is to make simple what we wine critics over-analyze is giving you a simplistic explanation and one moreover you should take with a grain of salt. Beware the demystification industry. It’s not as pure and disinterested as you might think.”

And now another take from a few of the people (and wine producing regions) where they see understanding consumers and opportunity:

“We are working with the Sauternais to 'Liberez les Sauternes' or free Sauternes from it's labeling as a dessert wine and I instinctively feel that you might be able to help us. The Sauternais drink their wines with fish, roast meats and spicy foods as well as with dessert - they can't understand why the world insists on drinking it only with sweet dishes, cheese or foie gras… The 'anti-sweet' phenomenon is frustrating and confusing to them. They sense that, if left alone to choose, most people would prefer to drink sweet wines much more frequently and your research suggests that this might be the case. If there is anything that you can send to help our mini-movement I would be most grateful…” From producers in a classic region, producing great wine of style and character, frustrated and facing lost market by the obtuse and narrow thinking of the wine industry!

“Tim, your name has been recommended to me at least 5 times in the last week and I see why now! Your review of who I am and what I like, I have to say spot on!” From a blogger who asked the question – “who am I”

“I’ve been ridiculed by black coffee–drinking big cab lovers as not having a “sophisticated” palate for preferring sweet wines — fruit-far-forward rieslings and icewines, preferably — to pucker-producing titans of tannin. I like icewines, because they don’t have the bite of high-alcohol ports or the like. A Napa Valley chef recently tried to convince me that learning to savor bitterness was part of “growing up” as a cosmopolitan connoisseur.” From a MALE wine business writer who is embarrassed to tell people what kind of wines he enjoys the most.

“I really love how you continue to refine and hone in on this tremendous wealth of information you have. This is a great distillation, very clear. A great set up for exploring and learning. How exciting that it will be part of these curriculums!” From one of the Napa Valley’s greatest chefs.

So who is against growing the industry? Seems like a lot of people think consumers are too stupid to know what they should like and the job of the wine expert is to save them from themselves. I propose there is a better way.

Confidence = Consumption

Wine consumers are a curious lot and wine experts are even curiouser (?). What do people really want fer christsake? Why do they like the wines they like, and why don’t we all agree on what is, or isn’t, quality and value? Pretty simple, really – we are all different. The question seems to be, “how different are we, what are these differences and what does it matter?”

And it turns out it is our (the wine trade and experts) relative ignorance of taste sensitivity and basic human behavior that is making millions of potential wine consumers feel intimadated and lose confidence in their ability to enjoy "sophisticated" wines. After a year of survey development, collection and data crunching Dr. Virginia Utermohlen, MD and I are excited to announce we are one step closer to a solution!

One of the fascinating things that came out of the data we have been looking at from our just-concluded wine consumer research project, conducted in conjunction with the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi is that “confident consumers are consuming consumer.” And the most confident consumers are a phenotype we categorize from our research as Tolerant tasters: they are physiologically predisposed to love red wines. They want red wines regardless of occasion or meal. They can tolerate lots of intensity, bitterness, tannin and high levels of alcohol. They know what they like and how to get at it.

The least confident segment? Those we categorize as Sweet and Hyper-sensitive who are physiologically predisposed to abhor the wines favored by the Tolerant crowd. And here is where this matters: the disenfranchised consumers of light wines, sweet or dry, are 6 times more likely to be embarrassed about the wines they drink and 10 times more likely to drink wine less than once a month than a Tolerant consumer. There is a clear-cut correlation between taste sensitivity, confidence and wine consumption. And don't you think for a second they are not drining - they are over at the bar slurping down the appletinis, cosmos and myriad other drinks where they are not punished and stigmatized for having more taste buds!

I propose that this is an amazing opportunity for the wine industry and we really need to address the issues that keep so many consumers, at all levels of interest and participation, so overwhelmed and confused. And with the enormous range of products and differing opinions from wine experts, is it any wonder?

With over 80,000 wines in the US market alone the vast majority of wine consumers are confused, intimidated and overwhelmed - even stigmatized for their wine preferences. And 'wine education' as it is presented today, only makes matters worse in many cases. Wine experts, writers and bloggers argue over wine characteristics that are clearly perceived differently and this is directly related to the range and intensity of sensations we are physiologically capable of experiencing.

The battle is raging once again in the blogosphere even as we speak – "what defines ‘balance’?" for a 'taste' of the argument go to my pal Joe Robert's site: 1WineDude. The answer lies in understanding your sensitivity quotient and how this affects your personal experience (range and intensity of sensations) of wine flavors. Your taste sensitivity combined with your unique, ever-changing neural programming over time as a result of culture, society, learning, experience and aspirations and voila! - YOUR personal preferences. Throw on top of this an understanding of OTHER people's sensitivities and holy moly - no more arguing, just get that it can be radiaclly different one person to the next.

A Sufi Parable Revisited (also see my post 3 Blind Men and a Wine )
Three blind bloggers were asked to taste a high-scoring Napa Cabernet and describe the balance of fruit, oak and alcohol of the wine to a universe of spectators. The first blind man was a hyper-sensitive taster with over ten thousand taste buds, the next a sensitive taster with 2,000 buds and the third a tolerant taster with somewhere around 500 taste papillae. All were wine lovers, passionate and oh so knowledgeable, but they were unaware of their physiological sensory equipment and radically differing perception. Each of them tasted the wine and spoke in turn:

“Yech, this wine is horrible – the jammy fruit, burning alcohol, excessive oak – how can anyone drink an unbalanced, over-the-top wine like this? It would ruin any meal,” said the first blind blogger.

The second blind blogger weighed in, “This wine is representative of the style I have grown tired of – have learned to seek wines of greater finesse and that is why I joined the Anything But Cabernet movement.”

“Ah, nirvana!” quote the third expert. “Full, rich and powerful; smooth and hedonistically satisfying with a sweet fruit core. 95 points!”

The spectators looked on in confusion. Bewildered, they silently wondered which of these mavens was right – what should they look for, how on earth should they make decisions and who could they turn to so they could make a smart buying decision? It was as if each of the blind bloggers were feeling up the same elephant and describing it as either a snake, a tree trunk and a rope.

FYI, for anyone in the wine trade (or interested in general) interested in the results of the study Dr. Virginia Utermohlen and I have been working on we are releasing our full report titled Wine Consumer Segmentation: Beverage preferences, Attitudes, and Behaviors for purchase. If you are in wine production, marketing and/or communications you can learn more about the study and place your order today at THIS LINK. We will be delivering the report electronically this Friday, December 10, 2010.

A copy of our free summary report can be downloaded at http://www.timhanni.com/. It is a comparison of the Sweet and Tolerant phenotype groups and chock full of great information. The summary provides a thumbnail look at the background and format of the information that is available in the full report. The full report covers all four segments we have identified and slices and dices the data in detail calling out opportunities for strategically marketing to ALL consumers who choose wine in a more powerful and targeted manner.

A Challenge to the Wine Industry

There are many positive factors that have parlayed wine into the adult beverage most associated with good taste, sophistication and style. Wine quality, at all price levels, has improved dramatically. The range of wine types and styles available today is complete enough to satisfy every possible consumer preference and pocketbook. Indeed one of the challenges consumers face is how to confidently drill into the overwhelming number of choices and find wines they will love.

An equally dizzying number of choices exists with wine classes, educational initiatives and the availability of wine evaluations and information. The birth and expansion of social media, blogs and on line wine communities ranging from eRobert Parker, Jancis Robinson and Snooth have provided and explosion of connectivity and the ability to share points of view. To top it all off there are new generations of wine heroes and evangelists like Gary Vaynerchuk, Joe Roberts, Jeff Lefevere, Alder Yarrow and many, many others that millions of consumers and professionals alike tune into every day. Yep, there is plenty of wine information and interaction available.

This being said I am struck by how often the same issues and obstacles to expanding wine consumption seem to arise over and over again. So let’s take a look at the progress that has been made over the past 10 years. The following quote appeared in Brand Week a decade ago and at the center of discussion in many wine industry circles as a call to action:
“The fragmented, historically insular (wine) industry generally seems resigned to accepting the wine consumer pool as is rather than aggressively pursuing new markets... the next decade could easily be referred to by future wine historians as the "years of missed opportunity.” Brand Week, May 1, 2000

10 Years After
So what does the wine landscape look like 10 years after Brand Week’s prediction that “the next decade could easily be referred to as the ‘years of missed 0pportunity’”?

“The wine industry is guilty of going out of its way to confuse the consumer, and must urgently come up with 'a new big idea', according to a British advertising heavyweight…'The wine industry is the most fragmented market I've seen. Fragmented, confusing, impenetrable.'” Sir John Hegarty, June 28, 2010, Masters of Wine International Symposium, Bordeaux, France

Hmmm. Sounds pretty familiar. What is it that keeps us stuck in this deeply etched rut carved into the path of wine enjoyment and appreciation? I am convinced that it is a combination of complacency, misinformation and stubbornness in the wine industry. It is an unwillingness to adapt and change that is preventing us from having a larger consumer base and compromising our long-term fiscal stability and health. Despite ample evidence that the wine industry would be well served by becoming more consumer-focused, simplifying our messages and improving OUR ability to communicate our mantra remains the same, “we must better educate consumers, move them up to better wine.”

This is nothing new about the wine industry mission to educate consumers and there is also nothing wrong with the idea. Ditto for the idea of moving them up to better wine. Perhaps what we really need is another strategy to run concurrently. We seem to be keeping something in place that is not working for a really large portion of the market and then we wonder why we are not making more sustainable progress in removing the overwhelm and intimidation as evidenced in every wine consumer study ever conducted.

This quote about the Project Genome consumer study taken from Wines & Vines in 2008, “With the highest percentage of consumers falling into the "Overwhelmed" category, Leslie Joseph, Constellation's vice president of consumer research affairs, commented: ‘We need to do a better job as an industry of helping these people understand what a wine's going to taste like.”

And the following is from the UK site WINEOPTIONS.COM illustrating this phenomenon is present on a global scale. “WineOption.org feels the wine trade has traditionally placed its focus on connoisseurs and wine snobs rather than the much greater number of unpretentious people who enjoy wine. Many producers, retailers and wine writers have traditionally taken much of the potential enjoyment out of wine drinking by shrouding the subject with myth, snobbery, and arcane or pretentious language. This facade has been, and in some quarters remains, a convenient means of confusing or even intimidating wine shoppers into making purchase decisions much less helpfully informed than is the case with most other foods and beverages. In fact, it is perfectly possible to provide in relatively simple day to day language the basic information which most wine drinkers need and want to select any given wine.”

I think that it is high time we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “What are we missing that keeps a vast majority of consumers (and many of us professionals who are able to admit it) confused, mystified and intimidated?” The answer as I see it is to turn the tables and start newly educating ourselves and cleaning up a lot of the tired clichés and misinformation that is disseminated under the pretense of “wine education”. I am not implying that we stop wine education per se, just that we enforce a greater rigor in the information we dispense and come up with alternative solutions for the huge market segment that is further disenfranchised by our narrow, product-based and self-serving approach. The call to action is not to change anything about the many things we are doing right as an industry, it is a call to action so we can collectively discover what we may be missing that would add immeasurably to our continued growth and success.

I love this quote: “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” Tony Robbins

What would it look like if the wine industry and wine communities to on the mission to understand, embrace and cultivate ALL wine consumers, not just the over-saturated segment we narrowly define as ‘worthy’? What if our next educational initiative were internal and focused on learning more about consumers and discovering more about who likes what and why? I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!


For more info visit http://www.timhanni.com/

Perversion, Corruption and Wine?

The intention of this article is to explore one of the commonly held conventions about wine enjoyment and the notion of “sophisticated” wine consumers. The exploratory aspect of this piece includes looking at the meaning of the term ‘sophisticated’ and then asking the question, “is this the direction the wine industry really wants to go?” There seems to be a line drawn in the sand as to what is “good” wine versus “bad” wine and that this demarcation also carries over to defining what we consider “sophisticated” consumers versus “unsophisticated” consumers.

I love to look up words and drill down into their origins and deeper meaning. One word that I find particularly fascinating is the word ‘sophisticate’. In common usage, and especially when used in relationship with wine, the word sophisticated is associated with a worldly understanding or attainment of a superior status of knowledge.

A number of years ago I decided to look up the word and turned to my trusty American Heritage Dictionary and here is what I found:

Sophisticated – adj.
1. Having acquired worldly knowledge or refinement; lacking natural simplicity.

The first part of this definition seemed to align with my understanding of the word. But it was the second part that caught my attention, “lacking in natural simplicity.” It occurred to me that in the wine community there is an inherent discord between the promotion of wine as a simplistic, communal beverage and the expectation that people should become more sophisticated and drink ‘better’ wine. The definition gave me cause to wonder if you can have natural simplicity and sophistication simultaneously?

Of course one can argue there is the option that being naturally simplistic or sophisticated is a matter of choice. Some occasions call for natural simplicity while other occasions call for greater degree of sophistication. I would not necessarily disagree with this argument but I do wonder if a person becomes truly sophisticated, can they revert back to a natural simplicity, or is the worldly knowledge or refinement become neurologically hard-wired making it impossible to revert back to the naturally simplistic way of being?

This loss of natural simplicity also make me wonder if one of the reasons many people feel uncomfortable around formal wine events or in the presence of wine sophisticates. Is it due to this lack of natural simplicity and dare I say pretense? I can see how the worldly-knowing air of sophistication might be construed as self-righteousness and this in turn become an intimidating factor for the uninitiated. I can also see how much I contribute to this air of worldly knowing and faux refinement whenever I am around wine people. And pity the poor “unsophisticated” individuals that happen to stumble into this milieu.

Which brings me to the second definition in the dictionary which I found even more interesting than the first:

Sophisticate – v.
1. To cause to become less natural, esp. to make less naïve and cause to be worldly-wise. 2. To corrupt or pervert; adulterate.

Less natural? Corrupt, perverted; adulterated? Apparently when sophistry was being bandied about as a pre-Socratic school of philosophy in ancient Greece someone who set out to become worldly-wise long ago they came back with new ideas on religion, societal mores and sexual alternatives, thus becoming perverted and corrupted to the values and practices of their own culture. Sophists then used subtle, misleading and fallacious arguments to prove their points of view. The word ‘adulterate’ means ‘to make impure, spurious or inferior by adding extraneous or improper ingredients’ and I guess this applies to learning new values and ideas as filling our heads with extraneous or improper ingredients as well.

It finally struck me how this applies to the subject of expanding wine enjoyment and improving the dynamics of the wine community as a whole. Along with sophistication there is a loss of naturalness and simplicity, combined with an inherent self-righteousness and the use of misleading arguments to prove an opinion or point of view. This progression, gained by learning and exploring, is completely natural, nearly unavoidable and may provide insights into the loss of simplicity and understanding about wine and for other people’s points of view. The sophist is inclined to convince everyone else that their new-found knowledge and opinions is something that everyone should behold and adopt. Learning that this is how we learn can give us the ability to accept and understand the points of view of others rather than feeling the need to impose our will and values on others.

That gets us to the next two definitions:

Sophist – n.
2. A scholar or thinker, esp. one skillful in devious argumentation.

Sophistry – n.
1. A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.

These definitions see to imply that being a sophisticated wine drinker being devious, misleading and fallacious. How the heck does that fit in? My take on this is that it is not necessarily by intention but rather the completely human capacity to believe that what we know and things we experience are more real for ourselves than for others. It provides us with a sense of superiority and being in the know, wanting to hsare our experiences with others and a genuine feeling that others will benefit from seeing things our way. People also tend to gravitate to others who seem to share a common perspective and points of view. The point of view might be inclusive and people are bound by shared agreement or the connection may be made by an exclusive agreement such as the anything-but-chardonnay crowd and the feeling of strength in numbers that comes from collective agreement that this is the way it is and should be.

In my mind the devious, misleading or fallacious arguments are intentional. They are points of view that come from an individual rationale for value and preferences held to be inherently better that another’s either as an individual or collective. Then arguments ensue that one way is right, or better in some way, than another’s is where the fallacy lies. This behavior can be seen in how people connect and congregate around wine, food, politics, religion, fashion, cars – you name it. It is completely human. Whether it is the 100 point rating system, groups formed around an agreement for the superiority of wines from certain locales or the antithesis of inclusive agreement; the shared opinion for the exclusion of wine types or styles. It is misleading to think that one way is superior to another. Self-righteousness is part of being human, can take many forms and is widely practiced – even in the devious guise of the anti-geek.

Consider the possibility that sophistication inevitable and it is a natural human progression as we seek to learn about and understanding our universe. The new discoveries we make can excite us and bring more enjoyment to our lives and it is also only natural to want to share these discoveries with others. It is when we try to convince others that this new found knowledge is some how superior or are compelled to attack others for not agreeing with our philosophies or values that they their lives would be improved if only they would adopt another set of values, opinions or points of view. Yes – natural simplicity can so-exist with sophistication. It requires us to be sophisticated enough to understand the difference, and the differences in our individual opinions, perspectives and points of view.

Hmmmm. Perverted and corrupt. Anyone besides me feeling a little more like a ‘sophisticate’ today?

Consumer Friendly Wine Events

"Welcome to our event - would you like to learn about your taste sensitivity and how it affects your wine preferences?"

Imagine showing up at a wine event and you are met by someone who asks you a simple set of questions that helps you discover your Taste Sensitivity Quotient (TasteSQ) to determine if you are a Sweet, Hyper-sensitive, Sensitive or Tolerant taster. The wines are then set up in the room grouped by flavor categories: Sweet, Delicate, Smooth and Intense providing a means for the guests to zero in on the wines you are most likely to adore.

A similar format is used to add a new dimension to a wine dinner: a minimum of four wines are offered simultaneously across the range of flavor categories: sweet, delicate, smooth and intense. The wines are poured at the beginning of the meal and served with every course. This allows the guest to try them all and determine which they like best, not fearing the one they love will be whisked away at the end of a course. Tolerant tasters who love intense red wine are free to dive right in, sweet wine lovers get to enjoy their sweet wine throughout the meal and everyone gets to explore any or all of the wines with every dish.

Here are a few things we have discovered over the past 3 years of adding the TasteSQ dimension to different tastings and dinners:

1. Many attendees immediately gain a sense of confidence and spirit to explore new wines.
2. Couples and friends often discover that different taste sensitivities are the source of their disagreements (or agreements) over wine styles.
3. What we categorize as 'disenfranchised' consumers (mostly Sweet and Hyper-sensitive tasters) learn that their inherent wine preferences come from having more taste buds and their attitude is positively and immediately transformed. Young wine drinkers feel especially empowered.
4. Having the wines grouped into flavor categories ensures a better mix of wine styles for an event. This helps to avoid the 'big red' syndrome and balances out the offerings so that there is more variety.
5. Vintners who are pouring their wines get the gist of this really quickly and get to frame their talking points in a personalized fashion while learning how their wines are received by the different TasteSQ groups. We get wonderful feedback about the insights this provides for them.

At the Lodi Spring Wine Show we train members of the Lodi Tokay Rotary to conduct the TasteSQ interview (you can try it at www.yumyuk.com) and assess hundreds of attendees who then get a sticker that declares their Taste Sensitivity group. This new process is now part and parcel of every event and wine dinner I organize.

Discovering something about yourself, and others, is always a great way to engage people and to generate conversations and camaraderie. The dynamics at a dinner table when everyone is wearing their TasteSQ badge is lively, inclusive and provides a fun topic for lively discussion. For more information on this type of event and background on Taste Sensitivity Quotient you can also visit www.timhanni.com.

Expand the wine market...but not THAT way!?

It is common knowledge that perception varies from one person to the next. So why then do so many people get so hysterical when research is conducted to quantify what the differences are, and how to use the findings of the research to expand consumption?

One of the problems is mistatements, especially in news headlines. Dr. Utermohlen and I assert sweet wine drinkers are more sensitive tasters, and that this is not necessarily a good thing at all! The headlines for Wine Business and other postings of the press release declare: Study Shows Sweet Wine Drinkers Better Tasters. No, not BETTER - just different and more sensitive.

Here are links to two of the most active blogs:
Rants: http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2010/10/25/white-zin-has-its-place-but-its-not-great-wine/
Raves: http://www.1winedude.com/

Background and research at www.timhanni.com
NEW: check out the new www.yumyuk.com site! Still under development bu coming right along and there are great wine recommendations now in each flavor category, along with recommended sites and expert mavens to consult for Sweet, Hyper-sensitive, Sensitive and Tolerant tasters.

Why the hostility, me wonders?

Jancis Robinson, who broke the news on the consumer survey summary report that Dr. Utermohlen and I released, reported to me, "There was some hostile reaction on the forum of my purple pages but I quelled it, I think."

It is amazing to me how intolerant many people in the wine community have become. Some (many) people love sweet wine, and history shows it is not a US (we grew up on Coca Cola) phenomenon. It is actually a big opportunity! I guess more fuel for the fire to change things...NOW.

Sweet Wine Drinkers Unite!

A summary of the results of the Wine Consumer Preferences study I conducted via the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, www.consumerwineawards.com , are now posted and can be downloaded that web site and at www.timhanni.com . The report compares differences in preferences, attitudes and behaviors between SWEET and TOLERANT (love big red wines) consumers. Dr. Utermohlen, my research partner, and I also issued a press release that is sure to draw the ire of the dry-wine-is-good-wine crowd. I will be posting some of the comments, pro and con, as they are received. Please send me YOUR story! tim@timhanni.com

The first one is from Jeff Quackenbush who lives in Sonoma:

Tim,
Thank you for sending this. I’ve been ridiculed by black coffee–drinking big cab lovers as not having a “sophisticated” palate for preferring sweet wines — fruit-far-forward rieslings and icewines, preferably — to pucker-producing titans of tannin. I like icewines, because they don’t have the bite of high-alcohol ports or the like. A Napa Valley chef recently tried to convince me that learning to savor bitterness was part of “growing up” as a cosmopolitan connoisseur.
Jeff

The next from a very cool mini-consortium of Sauterne producers called Boredeaux Gold (and this is covered in detail in the revision of the wine and food section of the WSET materials I was asked to rewrite):

"We are working with the Sauternais to 'Liberez les Sauternes' or free Sauternes from it's labelling as a dessert wine and I instinctively feel that you might be able to help us. The Sauternais drink their wines with fish, roast meats and spicy foods as well as with dessert - they can't understand why the world insists on drinking it only with sweet dishes, cheese or foie gras... The 'anti-sweet' phenomenon is frustrating and confusing to them. They sense that, if left alone to choose, most people would prefer to drink sweet wines much more frequently and your research suggests that this might be the case."

When the Lafite and Hermitage came out in a formal, French haute cuisine meal sweet wines were served right along side as DINNER wines, not dessert wines. As stated in Larousse Gastonomique in 1938, "if the guest prefers." Kinda shoots down 'traditional' wine and food matching.

Finally for now is this embarrassing (for our industry) recount from a meal at a very famous restaurant last year:

Lissa Doumani is representative of the millions of hyper-sensitive wine drinkers in the world and does not fit the stereotype of a "wimpy" consumer in any way, shape or form. Lissa, daughter of iconic vintner Carl Doumani, grew up in the heart of the Napa Valley surrounded by vines at a winery that was famous for intense red wines. Lissa became a pastry chef by trade (not unusual for a highly sensitive taster) and now she and her husband Hiro are proprietors of two Michelin-starred California restaurants; Terra in St. Helena and Ame in San Francisco. Also at the table were Dr. Harold McGee, food scientist and guru to the culinary world and Chef Kukuoka from Kyoto.

During a dinner at a world famous high-end restaurant she turned to her table mate Tim Hanni MW, co-author of this study and a recognized authority on wine and food, and asked him to order a wine that she might like better than the ones pre-selected by the restaurant. The highly rated, high-alcohol wines that had been chosen by the wine experts to accompany the meal tasted unpleasantly overpowering and even burned her hyper-sensitive palate.

What ensued is the bane of the vast majority of consumers who prefer light intensity and even sweet wines. Hanni's request for a recommendation of a "light, delicate wine" was met with the embarrassing retort, "if you knew anything about wine and food you would know that these are the appropriate wine for each dish."

Says Hanni, "This is not an indictment for well-intentioned wine professionals. It is indicative of our lack of understanding how vastly different our sensory physiology can be from one person to the next."