Mondovino director book attacks… just about everyone October 30, 2007
Panos Kakaviatos
Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter launches a new book tonight, exhaustively revisiting many of the issues examined in his 2004 documentary Mondovino.
The 432-page Le Goût et le Pouvoir (Taste and Power), reprises criticisms - first aired in Mondovino - of Robert Parker, Michel Rolland and others.
It also attacks just about anyone involved in the production or sale of wine, according to Manuel Carcassonne, editor-in-chief at Editions Grasset, the book's publisher.
These are people who hinder 'the expression of individual taste,' Carcassonne told decanter.com. 'That also means sommeliers, shop owners, supermarket wine sale representatives, as well as critics.'
Nossiter writes that 'we live in a strange era characterized it seems by a voluntary and collective abandonment' of individual taste.
'[Winemaking] parameters are dictated by an international taste and by champions of this taste – including Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator and certain Spanish critics like José Peñin. They are then produced by taste bureaucrats like Michel Rolland and hundreds of indigenous enologists like Telmo Rodriguez,' says Nossiter in the book.
Nossiter praises acidity in wine – suggesting it is 'like light in a film…the quality which animates the wine.'
He dubs wines that are too fruity, alcoholic and rich 'Prozac wines', and attacks 'intense marketing efforts' and 'complicit wine journalists' behind them.
'We are in the process of becoming predictable consumers…standardised and lacking any ideological facets,' he says. 'The “global citizen” has become the “universal consumer” of all that is simple and sugared.'
The book also traces the author's career as both a sommelier and filmmaker. As such he expands his targets to include 'punishing' and 'antidemocratic' mark-ups on wine in restaurants.
It is being released by the author tonight at Alice bookstore in Bordeaux - the same bookstore that saw the launch last week of Hanna Agostini's controversial book, Robert Parker: Anatomie d'un Mythe.
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I applaud Jonathan Nossiter's sentiments wholeheartedly, but not all of us involved in wine are tarred with the brush of vinous globalisation.
As one of New Zealand's main wine writers and critics, I am constantly criticised for my inadvertent habit of going against the grain - championing wines on their individuality, character, expression of place and quality; rather than just because the come from New Zealand.
Although born in New Zealand, I have never seen it as my duty to bat for the team simply because I live in an emerging wine country/region. On the contrary.
My annual wine guide is the only one published in New Zealanders annually which does not feature solely New Zealand wines. "The Indispensable Wine Guide" by Joelle Thomson, HarperCollins NZ, features all wines available in NZ under NZ$25 retail. It is now in its ninth edition and there has never been a Kiwi 'wine of the year' in the book - nor have there been choices that are deemed mainstream or popular.
While this has confounded many in the New Zealand wine business (making it more difficult for them to use my book as a springboard from which to sell Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs and Australian Shirazes et al), my book and my independent view point and palate ratings have earned me the respect of those who bother to taste wine outside what is plonked on their doorsteps for free each morning.
The latest "Indispensable WIne Guide" by Joelle Thomson (this is not an unashamed advertisement), is launched this month (November 2007) and the wine of the year is the Chivite Gran Fuedo.
My ears are already burning about the criticism that I know I will receive from the New Zealand wine trade. However, I tasted and retasted this wine several times on different occasions. Then I decanted it and drank a fresh bottle of it over two days, watching its complexities unfold - and marvelling that it could cost just NZ$24.99.
I have just returned from Sicily where I spoke to a group of Marsala producers, warning then against using American oak - and praising their passion for their indigenous grape varieties, which they are turning into high quality, great value and completely unique table wines.
I hope that Mr Nossiter has the good sense to realise that he is far from alone in pushing for the rediscovery of individual taste.
Joelle Thomson
I guess it really was a better time when people in the Loire only drank Loire wines, people in Chianti only drank Chianti (except for the exported swill that passed as wine and was bottled in a fiasco), and people in California only drank Carlo Rossi "Burgundy". Yep, them was the good old days! Why can't we just go back to then, and at the same time turn back all of the advancements society has achieved in medicine, architecture, business, engineering, etc. Take me back, country roads!!!
Dave Savage, Goodyear, AZ, USA
Mr Nossiter claims to love wine but, really, he is in love with himself.
Jack
Spot on, Jonathan Nossiter.
Decanter Magazine: guilty as charged.
Sarah Hennessey
Bit harsh to tar Decanter with this brush. I am not alone in detecting a bit of crusading zeal of late, admirable when you consider that those who are praised and those who advertise don't always correspond!
D Crossley, UK
I have spent most of my adult life in France, Italy and Spain. Wine for me has always been one of life's pleasures. Wherever I have travelled I have always chosen the wines of the region believing them linked to the local cuisine: what is the point in drinking Chianti with a paella or Rioja with pasta?
Today wine is a global product - a standardised,mass produced,alcoholic drink.
Gone is the notion of terroir or tradition, replaced by the grape variety and light, oaky or fruity taste, easier for consumers to understand. Stores have wall to wall Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon with little thought given to the country of production.
With articles, books, and TV programmes all promoting wine we have reached saturation point - rather like football. For god's sake it is a drink. Like the art market there are gurus whose word can make or break a vineyard and the financial implications can lead to corruption.
Little is said of the french producers in the Languedoc region who can hardly make ends meet due to the proliferation in production and industrial methods introduced by multi national companies. It has become so fashionable that stars have been buying vineyards as a final ego trip enabling them to put their names on the bottle, regardless of the quality
Another major cause for concern is the price of wine in restaurants,grossly overcharged. With Governments warning of the health risks and high pricing it is little wonder that people think twice before ordering more than one bottle or switch to water.
Peter Fieldman, Paris, France
Jonathan Nossiter spouts a load of rubbish and I question just how good his knowledge of the global wine trade really is. At the premiere of 'Mondovino' in Sydney I asked him how he could call a film 'World of Wine' and not mention anything about Australia, New Zealand, South Africa… he said he 'knew nothing about industrialised wine' and that he wasn't a journalist and therefore didn't have the six months to do the research required. But he nevertheless felt fully qualified to pontificate about how the entire world of wine was going to hell in a hand basket. The fact is, we live in a vinous golden age where people have more access to a wider number of better and more individual wines than ever before… a situation which is probably not sustainable, but that's a different issue. What Nossiter seems to object to is the democratisation of wine, that has taken wine off its exalted pedestal and allowed everyone to enjoy it. Sure, there's a lot of commodity wine out there… so what? It's not only not competing with fine/terroir wine, but it's actually introducing more people to the pleasures of the grape. As for the "intense marketing efforts" that are ruining wine, tell that to Champagne. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
Felicity Carter
Having seen Mondovino, and having worked for Bob Mondavi for almost 2 decades, Nossiter and his approach to wine is very one sided. Who made him the "wine guy with a glass eye"? He sees what he wants to see through his lense and expects everyone to march to his "tune". Bob Parker is not without blame for having a preferred style. At least I know he drinks wine, visits winery'l and is very sure of his likes and dislikes. Once I know what he likes, I can choose to follow his "opinion" or form my own by tasting the wine. Just remember the proof is in the empty Decanter! er.. bottle/glass! Wine is to drink and enjoy with fine food and fine company! I learned that from Bob!
Bob Plantenberg aka. Mr. Oak Barrel, Burnsville MN, USA
Wine is too vast and fascinating to be reduced to trash. The points mentioned above are not ground breaking, and we all know that the individuals who are "temporarily" at the top of the wine game are targets for criticism and jealousy. If no new concepts are being introduced, lets ignore it. I enjoyed Mondovino, but I think Nossiter's 15 minutes were up in 2004.
Ben Larsen, USA
Coming soon to bargain bins at a bookstore near you.
Sao Anash, Santa Ynez Valley, CA, USA
I think that Parker's influence on the wine world has turned from good to bad. He started out by challenging the French 'aristocracy' of wine to produce products worthy of their past bottlings. Fair enough, Lafite and company needed a wake-up call during the 1980s. But Parker has turned from rebel to establishment man. When was the last time he dared to give a 'first growth' a score below 90? Parker is indeed guilty of inspiring some wine makers to make over-oaked, jammy, boring wines. But this is just one part of a very diverse story. To admit this is not the same thing as agreeing in general with Nossiter. Nossiter errs in arguing that most winemakers are now producing Parkerized 'international' wines. They aren't. As Parker himself writes in the introduction to his recent book, "The World's Best Wine Estates," the quality of wine has never been better and the menu of choice has never been so diverse. My modest cellar contains Hunter Valley Semillons, Barossa Shirazes, Margaret River cabernets, Rutherglen 'stickies', New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, Napa cabs, Sonoma zinfandels, Carneros Chardonnays, old madeiras, old amontillados, palo cortados, and ports; racy Ribera del Dueros, oaky but light Riojas; causticly delicious bas armagnacs, magically delicious cognacs from Audry, bland Bordeaux, succulent but razor sharp Savennieres and Vouvrays; rustic Rasteaus, big Barolos, basic Barbarescos, super Toscanas, brambly Brunellos, dry Furmints from Oremus, sweet Tokays, minerally Santorinis and even some Commandria. With the exception of my old madeiras, cognacs, armagnacs, Brunellos and Barolos, every wine I mentioned above cost under $30. And they are all delicious and unique, expressive of time, place, terroir. Upper-middle class wine freaks have never had more good wines to enjoy. No two wines in my cellar are alike. Nossiter lives on another planet. How can he say that wine is becoming increasingly homogenized? Does he really know that much about wine? Or is he simply a cynical opportunist, feeding of fears of cultural globalization? Globalization works both ways: it leads to homogenization (sometimes for the better) at the low end, and it leads to a more diverse menu of choice at the mid and upper end of the market. The history of port, cognac, sherry, madeira and many other wines and spirits is inconceivable without the benefits of a large global market, without which demand for these magical elixirs would be insufficient in the home market.
Anon
BRAVO BRAVO Nossiter is exposing these wine phonies and marketeers, like the Mondavis and M. Rolland and Robert Parker. Anyone who spends much time in France and who .loves wine and the french will see these deceptions for what they are---Vive le Gout!
Jack Peverill
After sitting through the longer cut of Mondovino I sincerely hope that Mr Noissiter can maintain the same level of partisan incompetence in prose form,
John Power, Head Sommelier, Prestonfield House, UK
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I applaud Jonathan Nossiter's sentiments wholeheartedly, but not all of us involved in wine are tarred with the brush of vinous globalisation.
