There seems to be no better example of the relationships between a land, it’s crops (in this case grapes), and the local people than with wine. There are hundreds of different types (varietals) of grapes, all growing better in different climates and in different soils than others, and the people and their grapes have evolved on that land together, sometimes over tens of thousands of years. How could there not be a strong correlation between a culture and their wine?
Now we think of ourselves as pretty much the opposite of wine snobs: one of the things we love about wine is that, with thousands of wineries around the world, there are some incredibly delicious wines to be had for less than $10 a bottle. The constant search for those great deals–all while vintages change, along with our tastes as we age–is a uniquely fun challenge. That might say a lot about Lori and I and our tastes, but it probably also says a lot about Americans, our first cultural observation…
American wine is diverse, and who wouldn’t argue the diversity of the American people? We have thousands of wineries in our country alone, and we produce wine from almost every grape varietal there is. What we lack is a millenia-plus connection to our land, and therefore we lack a single, age-old wine identity (many areas of Europe, France in particular, share names between the wine and the geography). Just like our myriad selection of wine, we Americans have a cultural character of plenty and fleeting individual choice.
The parallels in cuisine we pointed out in our last blog–that French cuisine and people are complex, and that Italian cuisine and people are simple, fresh, and fun-loving–seem obviously similar with wine. Well, with one possible exception: Tuscan wines (Chianti, Sangiovese, Valpolicella) hardly seem simple and fresh, but they do seem to appeal to the Italian’s fundamental love of life.
In science we prove a theory by extrapolating them into a prediction that can be verified with experimentation. Not that this series of blogs is exactly “scientific”, but does knowing what we know of a regional wine allow us to infer the nature of that region’s people? Lori and I have come to love Port, the national wine of Portugal. We characterize Port as sweet, fun, mellow, and a great medium for socializing.
Which means we can’t wait to visit Portugal.
