Shaking Up the Wine World

I was sipping on a crisp glass of Roche Pinot Gris the other day when a colleague commented on my wine. “I don’t like that wine. Pinot Gris should never be oaked.” After a few more words passed between us, I became enlightened to this common perspective that wines should only taste a certain way, being the way they have always tasted. Buyers of wine feel tricked if a bottle of wine is purchased and it veers in a new direction of flavour and style.

But I am stuck on this. This wine from Roche is juicy, balanced, and satiating, and I applaud their successful efforts to create a wine that stands out from the rest. So why is there such stigma surrounding wines going against the grain?

Thousands of years of wine evolution have cemented in a plethora of rules, regulations, and expectations as to what wine is, how it should be grown, where it should be grown, and how it should taste. Old World regions tend to have rigid parameters, while New World regions have much more autonomy to produce stylistically variable wines.

Tradition is valuable. Staying closely connected to the roots of our past is important, as is ensuring the continuity of these wines and their quality. But what about innovation? Are we stifling generations of avant-gardists simply because this is how wine has always been made, therefore do not change it? Have we missed the opportunity to produce a ground-breaking style of wine simply because law dictates that you cannot grow that varietal in that vineyard? Even outside the law, societal expectations are often militant and elitist. “I only drink Old World wine,” is a line that should result in you being sent to bed without supper. It will also result in you missing out on some of the world’s most brilliant wines. Be adventurous! Be supportive of those winemakers who are passionately taking risks. And remember people, it is just grape juice!

A quick shout-out to Aurelio Montes Jr. of Montes wine (in Chile), of whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks back at a luncheon at Nectar restaurant in Vancouver, B.C. His passion for his trade as a winemaker and as an innovator in his field is strikingly contagious, and inspired my post today. The Montes Icon wines will blow your socks off, and I am impatiently waiting for next year’s special order of the Montes Twins white wine, an unbelievable blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. —Laura Starr

To discover more about wine from our resident sommelier, check out Laura’s summer picks here.