You Are Not the Customer. And Nor am I.
Say 'Prosecco' to many wine professionals and you're almost sure to get a negative response
“I really hate Prosecco”
“I can’t imagine why anyone drinks Pinot Grigio”.
I’m sure plenty of professionals in the clothing world quite rightly criticise fast fashion for the sweatshops in which it is often produced and the environmental damage it causes, but I wonder how many denigrate styles of garment they simply don’t like. How many in the movie and book publishing industries wish away teen flicks and ghost-written celebrity ‘autobiographies’?
And how many say, “they’re not to my taste, but I understand there’s a market for them, which helps to sustain the industry as a whole”?
Now, before I go any further, and to ward off responses from at least one likely reader, I’m not referring to wine critics here. It’s their job to express their opinions, though
the critics I respect, and certainly the ones I want to see as judges at wine competitions, are able to separate their personal taste from their assessment of quality.
No to No-Alc
Follow other wine professionals’ social media comments on zero-alcohol wine, or raise it as a topic with them, however, and you will almost certainly encounter a chorus of voices saying a) that they all taste horrible, and b) that they’re not wine. Few actually move on to c) “they shouldn’t exist”, but the implication is clear.
A couple of decades ago, a similar phenomenon affected ‘New World’ wine, which Aimé Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac famously decried as being universally ‘industrial’, and natural wine of which I was publicly very critical.
In all these cases, the negative commentary consists of conflating personal taste with an attitude towards the wine market as a whole: “I don’t like it, so neither will anyone else. And if they do, they’re wrong.”
Loving the funk
When talking about natural wine, I couldn’t imagine many wine drinkers actually wanting to drink the mousy/oxidised/bretty stuff I’d just been served. Then I woke up and sniffed the glou glou and realised it was me who was wrong. While most of my wine friends shared my views, lots of sommeliers, a few distributors and a cohort of wine drinkers in smart restaurants and hipster wine bars, evidently enjoyed the ‘funk’. Just as others enjoyed - and still enjoy - big, oaky-buttery Chardonnay and ‘Parkerised’ blockbuster reds.
Natural wine sales statistics and the closure of a number of high-profile natural-focused outlets support my contention that the market for low and no-intervention wines has remained limited, but I underestimated the demand for them, including from people who - often erroneously - imagine that hands-off winemaking would make for fewer headaches.
So, I made more effort to taste these wines and discovered that what I considered their ‘quality’ (aka lack of winemaking faults) has undeniably improved. I’ve still encountered zero-SO2 efforts that have oxidised over the course of a couple of hours and, to be honest, natural wines are still not my first choice when choosing a bottle, but I understand why others may want them. And that their existence has almost surely led to a slower decline in wine consumption among younger drinkers in France and probably elsewhere.
Which brings me to zero-alcohol wines, with which, if I’m honest, my experience was quite similar. Over a period of 30 years. I had almost universally bad experiences, and confessed to having sympathised with the tasters we asked to judge them at the International Wine Challenge.
Getting better
But, here too, I woke up and smelled the zero. I listened to people who have their own, often health-related reasons for not wanting to consume alcohol (including those same headaches), and I tasted widely and found that these beverages, too, were improving.
Were most of them improving quickly and dramatically enough to turn me into a fan? No. But, there are plenty of other full-strength wines out there that I and other critics of AF wines also don’t want to drink on a daily basis. And many of those sell in large volumes to people who clearly enjoy them.
740 cans per second
Red Bull is a beverage whose flavour gives me no pleasure, but I acknowledge that 32 million cans are bought and drunk every day, and I admit that, if I need a legal way to remain awake on a long drive, a can or two can be an effective alternative to espressos from a machine.
I am absolutely not saying that popularity makes any product, service - or politician - ‘good’. But it does indicate some kind of resonance with a substantial number of people who have money to spend - or votes to register.
And the fact that you or I may be immune, or actively resistent, to that appeal doesn’t reduce its impact. It simply means that our perspective is not representative of everybody else’s.
Salt & pepper potties
We, and never forget this, are not the customer. (A friend with a gift shop in France had a golden rule when selecting stock: would she have it in her home? If the answer was ‘yes’, she gave it a thumbs down. The wisdom of this strategy was proven by the consistent, highly profitable sales of plastic salt-and-pepper pots shaped like toilets.
The importance of removing one’s own shoes and trying on the pairs others are wearing was brilliantly illustrated in a LinkedIn post by the ever-interesting behavioural scientist, Richard Shotton, who uses a cartoon to show the difference in how a baby and cooing relations see the mobile a doting parent has suspended over its cot.
Shotton also references a 1977 Stanford University study led by Lee Ross.
320 people were given a story to read:
𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢 𝘳𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 (𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘳) 𝘢𝘵 38 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 25-𝘮𝘱𝘩 𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦. 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘢 $20 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦.
They were then asked a couple of questions:
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 % 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 $20 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭?
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 % 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦?
Lastly, they were asked what they would do.
Most assumed that their peers would do the same as them:
Over half - 52% - assumed that, like them, others would choose to go to court.
But nearly three quarters - 72% - of the ones who said they’d pay the fine thought most other people would do likewise.
Your - or my - dislike of funky natural wine/sweet red/Pinot Grigio/blockbuster Cab/Prosecco/bourbon barrel Zin (delete as applicable) is NOT a ‘correct’ default to which most wine drinkers should conform. It’s a personal taste. And forgetting that does our beleaguered industry no favours.