What a refreshing and insightful article. I am very close with my niece who is 27 this year and I hang out with her and her friends whenever I am in town, and though they aren't wine professionals or even wine geeks, they are interested in good wine and are want the information, and they love finding winemakers who align with their worldview, and they are 100% more inclined to want to share a really nice bottle of Tsolikouri that I advise than a Yellowtail or the crap I was drinking in my 20s. I decided to upgrade my subscription due to this article and look forward to more from Caroline, I am interested in the worldview of Gen Z.
Wine is a complex subject, yes. But, that's what makes it so intriguing and beautiful! It has such a long history. It reflects all the different cultures where it is made. Double-down on the rich fabric of the world of wine. It will replenish your spirit.
Fabulous article! I'm 62, but I started loving wines in my 20s in the same way. I have friends my age who never really cared about wine and still don't. Maybe they signed onto some fads along the way, but they just weren't into it. It's not about the generation.
Rt if you read WS and just want to comment “OK boomer”
I agree that demystifying as dumbing down is bad, but I don’t agree with the broad-stroke, “demystifying wine = A Bad Thing” that has appeared in EDD lately. Sure, it’s easy to use “demystify” as a shortcut to make fun of the ridiculous “hello, fellow kids” marketing people, but in my experience (Caroline and I are the same age) my generation wants demystification in the sense that they want explanations. It seems like the “here’s what to order to impress your boss” videos resonate exactly because of that, and that doesn’t necessarily mean people are doing the work - those videos are popular because they’re shortcuts to cultural capital. A lot of my friends just want to be told what to drink- the same reason Jason’s wine recommendations are popular, because he’s taking a complicated topic and writing about it in an accessible way that doesn’t dumb down. And at the end of the day, what is general-interest wine writing but demystification?
I think when we’re using “demystification” we’re talking about a certain type of flattening out of wine. And often the goal of the bad de-mystification is to sell cheap bulk wine. If you remove wine’s complexity, it mostly serves big brands selling shitty wine.
What a refreshing and insightful article. I am very close with my niece who is 27 this year and I hang out with her and her friends whenever I am in town, and though they aren't wine professionals or even wine geeks, they are interested in good wine and are want the information, and they love finding winemakers who align with their worldview, and they are 100% more inclined to want to share a really nice bottle of Tsolikouri that I advise than a Yellowtail or the crap I was drinking in my 20s. I decided to upgrade my subscription due to this article and look forward to more from Caroline, I am interested in the worldview of Gen Z.
BUT WE NEED TO DEMISTIFY WINE FOR YOU!!!!!!
LOL
Wine is a complex subject, yes. But, that's what makes it so intriguing and beautiful! It has such a long history. It reflects all the different cultures where it is made. Double-down on the rich fabric of the world of wine. It will replenish your spirit.
Fabulous article! I'm 62, but I started loving wines in my 20s in the same way. I have friends my age who never really cared about wine and still don't. Maybe they signed onto some fads along the way, but they just weren't into it. It's not about the generation.
So true
Rt if you read WS and just want to comment “OK boomer”
I agree that demystifying as dumbing down is bad, but I don’t agree with the broad-stroke, “demystifying wine = A Bad Thing” that has appeared in EDD lately. Sure, it’s easy to use “demystify” as a shortcut to make fun of the ridiculous “hello, fellow kids” marketing people, but in my experience (Caroline and I are the same age) my generation wants demystification in the sense that they want explanations. It seems like the “here’s what to order to impress your boss” videos resonate exactly because of that, and that doesn’t necessarily mean people are doing the work - those videos are popular because they’re shortcuts to cultural capital. A lot of my friends just want to be told what to drink- the same reason Jason’s wine recommendations are popular, because he’s taking a complicated topic and writing about it in an accessible way that doesn’t dumb down. And at the end of the day, what is general-interest wine writing but demystification?
I think when we’re using “demystification” we’re talking about a certain type of flattening out of wine. And often the goal of the bad de-mystification is to sell cheap bulk wine. If you remove wine’s complexity, it mostly serves big brands selling shitty wine.